Messages In This Digest (15 Messages)
- 1.1.
- Re: (unknown) From: Katrina
- 2.1.
- This week's Moonscopes From: Ash
- 4a.
- Power Animal of the Day: Polar Bear From: Ash
- 5a.
- Quado's Garden: It Is All Inside You From: Ash
- 6.
- Jennifer Hoffman: 10-10-10 Beginnings & Endings From: Ash
- 7.
- Hekate: A Devotee's Views From: Ash
- 9.
- Get Ready for Samhain!: Day 4: Samhain Rituals and Ceremonies From: Cher Chirichello
- 10.
- It is Anti Pagan to Celebrate Halloween? From: Cher Chirichello
- 11a.
- All About Halloween.......Mwaaaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha From: Cher Chirichello
- 12a.
- Why do you love the Halloween Witch? From: Cher Chirichello
- 13a.
- Halloween Witch From: Cher Chirichello
- 13b.
- Re: Halloween Witch From: grambadger@juno.com
- 14.
- (no subject) From: susanc06@yahoo.com
Messages
- 1.1.
-
Re: (unknown)
Posted by: "Katrina" katrina.ragozy@gmail.com kala_astrid
Sat Oct 9, 2010 2:04 am (PDT)
Same here Don. If all there is in the post is a link, I don't bother
clicking on it. If any posts show up from me without my signatures, a
subject, or anything else, I didn't send them.
********************* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ****
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.
Mahatma Gandhi
Time may heal all wounds but the scars remain forever.
-------Original Message-------
From: Don Wildgrube
Is this spam?? I won't open anything when there no information about it and
the person posting hasn't been posting before.
No thanks, Don
- 2.1.
-
This week's Moonscopes
Posted by: "Ash" mhc4sure@yahoo.com mhc4sure
Sat Oct 9, 2010 5:18 am (PDT)
This Week's Moonscopes Forecast
For the week
of October 10 to October 16
(Missed last
week's forecast? Here it
is.)
Sunday(*v/c-pm): the Moon is in
Scorpio
Venus and Mars are lined up with each other in Scorpio and
also with the Moon. Passion and desire could run pretty high. Venus
loves love and Mars likes to heat thing up. If love is not currently in the picture, then desires in other areas
could make themselves known. Avoid making commitments on Sunday afternoon since
the Moon is void-of-course (v/c) at that time.
Sunday evening,
Monday, Tuesday: the Moon is in
Sagittarius
Whenever
something prominent like the Moon goes through this sign, there is a tendency to
wonder and wander, either figuratively or literally (Sagittarius likes to
broaden horizons). And since the Moon theoretically goes through each of the
twelve signs during one month, about once every thirty days or so we derive
pleasure from considering things outside of our own little corner of the
world.
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday(v/c-am): the Moon
is in Capricorn
Saturn, the planet that rules (is in charge of
or is associated with) the sign Capricorn, is currently in the sign of its
highest level of energy - Libra and is therefore in a position of exaltation.
This raises the level of the current Moon in Capricorn to another position as
well. So instead of getting the usual serious, get down to business message that
often comes when the Moon is in this sign, we are receiving an astrological missive
via Saturn to review our successes and enjoy our accomplishments. This is an
especially good time to acknowledge situations in which we employed our honesty
and fairness.
Friday pm, Saturday: the Moon is in
Aquarius
A classic summation of Aquarian energy is - marching to
the beat of a different drummer. How does your own drumbeat fit in or not fit in
with the rank & file, as the case may be? Maybe yes sometimes and maybe no
at other times? Completely on the offbeat or always right in step and in line?
Check your astrology chart to find which
house (section of your chart) has the current Moon sign on the cusp (the
beginning edge) & apply Forecast information to that area of your life as
well.
For example, the Moon is in Leo
and one of the suggestions is to entertain - however Leo is located in the
12th house of your chart, which is an inward energy place...then have a small,
quiet gathering. By contrast, if Leo is located in the 1st house of your chart,
an outward energy place...have a party! Don't have an
astrology chart? Click here
.
It is
interesting to note
when the current Moon is in the same sign as your birth Moon and to see how the
flavor of that day carries through the next 30 days.
Current Planet
Positions:
Sun
- Libra, until Oct. 24
Mercury - Libra, until Oct.
21
Venus - Scorpio, until
Jan. 8, 2011
(Libra, Nov. 8-29)
Mars - Scorpio, until Oct. 28
Jupiter - Pisces,
until Jan. 23, 2011
Saturn - Libra,
until Oct. 6, 2012
Uranus - Pisces, until Mar. 12, 2011
Neptune - Aquarius,
until Feb. 4, 2012
Pluto - Capricorn,
until Nov. 20, 2024
Current
Asteroid Positions:
Ceres - Capricorn, until Jan. 4, 2011
Pallas - Sagittarius,
until Dec. 21
Juno
- Virgo, until July 28, 2011
Vesta - Scorpio,
until Dec. 4
Chiron - Aquarius,
until Feb. 18, 2011
Current
Asteroid Transits:
Ceres - Responsibility illustrated with a nurturing
attitude.
Pallas
- Broaden skill and information
bases.
Juno - State
clearly what you want in a personal partnership.
Vesta - Deep
devotion that is often private.
Chiron - Regeneration
comes in unusual forms.
Note: Timeframes for Moon signs,
void-of-course periods, and current planet & asteroid positions are
noted for Eastern time zone (USA). Please adjust according to your own
location.
Times are not given if the void-of-course Moon occurs for a very short
period or if it occurs during the night
(based on same Eastern time zone).
* v/c =
Void-of-Course
-
When the Moon is void-of-course, spend time working on projects
already in progress, creative endeavors, or self-improvement.
Void-of-course simply means that no planets are aspecting the
Moon as it gets ready to change
signs. It's best not to
start new projects, sign important agreements, or go shopping when the
Moon is void-of-course because the result will probably be
unsatisfactory in some way.
** Mercury Retrograde - the speed of the
planet slows down considerably. Communications, paperwork, electronics, and
traffic can become very mixed-up or delayed during this time. A
situation will be in the process of changing, so wait until Mercury is direct to
finalize anything. In general, maintain a slower, more cautious pace in
daily affairs. Always allow at least two days before (to slow down) and after (to resume regular
activities) a Mercury retrograde period.
Read More about Mercury Retrograde here
'May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.' The Universal Heart Center http://www.freewebs.com/moshayra
- 3.
-
PoTO Books & Herb: Familiar Spirits / Book of Spirit Communications
Posted by: "Ash" mhc4sure@yahoo.com mhc4sure
Sat Oct 9, 2010 5:55 am (PDT)
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'May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.' The Universal Heart Center http://www.freewebs.com/moshayra
- 4a.
-
Power Animal of the Day: Polar Bear
Posted by: "Ash" mhc4sure@yahoo.com mhc4sure
Sat Oct 9, 2010 6:08 am (PDT)
http://www.poweranimalsunleashed. com/power_ animal_028polarb ear.htm
The Polar Bear
Strength
Perseverance Insulation
Take
a deep breath and let the spirit of the polar bear fill you.
Click here to Listen to the Polar Bear's Song.
The polar
bear is enormously strong and full of courage. He will help you stand up to the
challenges of life,
so you are never
overwhelmed, no matter how large the challenges are.
For you are the polar bear, and you do not back down.
The polar
bear will also teach you to thrive in environments that may be hostile to
others. He will give you powerful insulation, so that you are always safe and
sound, no matter what is around you. While others are losing strength and
power, you will just breathe in deeply and pull warm polar bear energy around
you and within you.
With polar
bear energy within you, you will have the strength and perseverance to handle
any challenges that life brings to you, no matter how great. Just breathe
in polar bear energy and you will be filled with self-belief; you will know that
you are everything you need to be.
The polar
bear is also a master at camouflage. When you need to disappear into yourself
and find peace for a moment, just close your eyes and cover your nose and you
will disappear for a time. Then, rested and rejuvenated, spring to life, full
of enough energy to cross the arctic ices. After all, you are the polar bear
and power is yours.
'May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.' The Universal Heart Center http://www.freewebs.com/moshayra
- 5a.
-
Quado's Garden: It Is All Inside You
Posted by: "Ash" mhc4sure@yahoo.com mhc4sure
Sat Oct 9, 2010 6:18 am (PDT)
http://www.quado.com/quados- garden/050714. htm
It is
All Inside You
Everything
in your life will become easier when you make your choices from your center of
truth and rightness rather than from your emotions. And by emotions, I mean
excitement and anticipation as well as fear and anger. All emotions are
responses to expectations and your heart of rightness has no expectations.
In
your center of truth and integrity, there is a deep knowingness, a connection to
a greater purpose, a connection to more than you alone. A connection to all
that is.
You know everything you
need to know. It is all inside you. All you need to do is learn to go beneath
emotion and access truth. Learn to do this, and you will open up a clear path
before you. You will not know what the future holds, but it will unfold before
you, step by step, in clarity and wonder.
'May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.' The Universal Heart Center http://www.freewebs.com/moshayra
- 6.
-
Jennifer Hoffman: 10-10-10 Beginnings & Endings
Posted by: "Ash" mhc4sure@yahoo.com mhc4sure
Sat Oct 9, 2010 2:20 pm (PDT)
10-10-10
Beginnings & Endings
Greetings!
On
Sunday we celebrate the date 10-10-10, a symbol of new beginnings that
we are so ready for. We want to find a new life purpose, new
relationships, new ways of being and more joy. So we welcome this
opportunity with open arms and an open heart. New beginnings are
available as long as we are willing to create space for them, which we
do by allowing their corresponding endings to occur. Every new beginning
we ask for is the door that opens when another closes. We cannot begin
without also ending.
Why
don't we welcome endings with the same joy as we do beginnings? Because
we think they involve sacrifice, suffering, pain and discomfort. When
something ends we have to do without, start over or acknowledge a
failure. Endings show us how things did not work out, where we could not
succeed at something or where our expectations were not met. And
endings disrupt the flow of our lives, as they compel us to look in
other directions, point out our shortcomings and work on ourselves.
While
that is what we may believe, that is not what endings are about.
Endings give us closure, confirmation and support on our next steps.
They are signs that we are ready for something else and the only painful
thing about them is when we do not allow them to occur.
There
is a law of physics which states that two things cannot occupy the same
space at the same time. And this is so true of endings and beginnings.
When we ask for something new, it takes the place of something that
already exists. So we have to release the old to make room for the new.
That's easy enough to do when it's something we do not care about but
when it is important to us, the ending has become personal, a
testimonial of who we are and a sign that we failed or lost. Allowing it
to end means that a part of us ends too and if we are not ready to
detach from it, let it go or have judgments then our endings will be
quite disruptive and painful.
On
this date and on future dates like it, for there will be more waves of
the energy of new beginnings as more shifts occur, we open more
energetic portals and step into higher dimensions, we will be asked to
make room for new beginnings by allowing endings to occur. Are we as
open to the ending as we are the beginning?
Along with any new beginning that you experience on October 10,
2010 and afterwards, give yourself the gift of an ending. This could be
an actual ending, a symbolic ending or an affirmation to release
something that you know does not serve you. Could you be more confident,
positive, happy, grateful, self assured, or loving or appreciative of
yourself? Imagine the ending as the closing door that allows the new
beginning to enter.
If
you want to be more confident or successful, release any guilt, shame
or other blocks that prevent you from expressing your full potential.
To be happy, close the door on an unhappy experience that you hold in your memory.
To
create love, be grateful for every unloving teacher you have had, for
their purpose was to help you find love within yourself.
To know your new life purpose, embrace where you are in this moment and everything you have learned.
To
be at peace, be grateful for every experience of chaos and that you
have the power to choose the energies that manifest in your life.
Embrace your new potential as you give yourself the gift of the endings that make beginnings possible.
Many blessings in these amazing, miraculous times.
Jennifer Hoffman
Aligning the Trinity and Daily OmI have
partnered with Daily OM to make the Aligning the Trinity, Achieving
Wholeness in Body, Mind, Emotions and Spirit teleclass available to
everyone. You can find the class at this link. It is now #5 in popularity! I hope you enjoy the class.
Healing Guilt and Shame class
Do
you need to release guilt and shame? The new Guilt & Shame Healing
and Transformation class is a wonderful opportunity for you to clear the
guilt and shame that has blocked you from living a joyful, fulfilling
life.
If
you have lived with guilt and shame for years, are stuck and are ready
to release the victim paradigm that has ruled your life, this class is
for you.
Click here for
more information and to register for this class, which begins on
Wednesday, October 13 at 6:30 PM US Central time. The cost is $97 for
the 4 sessions (that's less than $25 a class), handouts will be provided
and the classes are recorded. You do not have to be on the calls to get
the recording.
I hope that you will join me for this life changing class.
Many blessings,
Jennifer Hoffman
Contact Information
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ phone: 816-350-1139
email: Support@enlighteninglife.com
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'May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.' The Universal Heart Center http://www.freewebs.com/moshayra
- 7.
-
Hekate: A Devotee's Views
Posted by: "Ash" mhc4sure@yahoo.com mhc4sure
Sat Oct 9, 2010 3:21 pm (PDT)
Source: Jodi
Hekate: A Devotee's View
Author: Alorer
Posted: October 3rd. 2010
Times Viewed: 991
Hekate (Hecate is the Latin spelling and being Greek I prefer the Greek
one) is perhaps one of the most misinterpreted and misrepresented
deities in modern Paganism. From being given the Crone aspect when no
historical or mythological source supports it verifiably (and because
Neo-Paganism tends to cater to stereotypes heavily) to the
misinterpretation of Her triplicity to unfounded overemphasizing of Her
darker traits to virtually anything you can imagine.
Hekate has been misconstrued by many Neo-Pagans, mainly due to the lack
of research and study of reputed sources (Hesiod's Theogony comes to
mind as a very basic and vital work on the mythology of the Gods) but
also due to the overwhelming sense of "being special" that many
Neo-Pagans seem to have. Note that this isn't a blog on poking the -
admittedly big - portion of the "bad apples" in our big community tree.
This is a post attempting to educate somewhat regarding a well-known but
also exploited deity. However, in order to do so, one needs to shed
light upon the shadows of ignorance and misinformation that cloud
Hekate's image.
Before I delve deeper into Hekate's case, let me share some information on Her.
Hekate is the daughter and only child of the Titans Perses and Asteria.
She inherited power over the earth, sea and sky from Her parents. Hekate
is one of the very few Titans to have survived the Titanomachy and the
Olympian reign "unscathed" (which is an allegoric/mythologi cal way to
portray the survival of Her cults and worship as opposed to that of most
other Titans) as well as the only Titan to be praised equally to the
Olympians. In the Theogony, Hesiod notes how Zeus praised Her above all
others, did not take anything from Her power and even gave Her a share
in the dominion of most other Gods. She is the one He often went to for
advice.
Hekate is a Goddess of liminal places and times, key and torch bearing
maiden, guide, psycho pomp and "opener of ways". She is a counselor and
companion of those in need and protectress from and against witchcraft.
At the same time She is the governor of all magical acts and believed to
have invented theurgy. That is also why Hekate, alongside Hermes and/or
Iris, was to be appeased and petitioned before any ritual act for the
Gods, as She was the one (or rather one of those) responsible for and
permitting the mortals to reach out for the Gods. Should Hekate refuse
to aid you, your calls will remain unanswered and fall to deaf ears.
Hekate is also a Goddess related to the Moon (especially with the
Dark/New Moon) , childbirth (or more appropriately, child-nurturing) and
crossroads. She is one of the minor household deities, a protectress of
the home and household from outside perils, alongside Hermes. Note that
she only has a connection to the moon. The only Moon Goddess (and that
is understood as the one presiding over, embodying and ruling the Moon)
in Greek mythology and theology is Selene.
She presides over the darker side of the self as well as the inner one.
She governs intuition, divination and insight. Hekate is the
Goddess-In-The- Shadows but also the one who can pierce the shadows. She
is a "dark Goddess" in the sense that She is Queen of the Unseen but
not in the sense of negativity or "evil". Gods are beyond such human
concepts.
She is a maiden Goddess and not a crone contrary to popular (mis)
belief. Most mythological- related texts consider Her a virgin as well
although some have her double as the mother of Skylla (by Phorkys - in
the works of Apollonius Rhodius) or as the mother of Circe, Medea and
Aigialeus (by Aeetes - in the works of Diodorus Siculus) . Personally, I
prefer the virgin Goddess theory since the rest conflict with the other
mythological family trees.
Hekate is often portrayed as a crone due to Her association with Magic.
In medieval times, the image of Hekate merged with the stereotypical
image of an elderly, scary-looking woman over a cauldron. From that, as
well as Her, somewhat "grim" duties, spawned the image of a physically
old Hekate, which is, of course, mistaken.
Another "faulty" interpretation of Hekate is Her triplicity. Due to the
popularity of the Wiccan/Neo-Wiccan tenet of a Triple Goddess, other
"Triple" Goddesses were misappropriated and deemed as being "triple" in
the same manner. That is also incorrect. Hekate is triple in a literal
sense. Being associated with crossroads and liminal places, Hekate is
literally a "three-headed/ formed figure", seeing in all directions. The
Triple Goddess tenet of modern Paganism (specifically Wicca) is
allegoric in the sense that it's related to aspects and periods as
opposed to a literal, physical figure. In addition, Hekate was also
portrayed often as a single person or as having three distinct bodies.
Finally, Hekate is a strict and stern Goddess. She can be very loving,
warm and intimate with Her followers, especially those that praise and
satisfy Her but She is also not as forgiving as other deities as well as
intolerant of many vices, in a greater degree than most deities. A
bright example is how She can be quick to remove (at least temporarily
or until reformation occurs) Her favor and aid from even a devoted
follower of Hers, should he/she stray from the path and fail to meet the
requirements and standards set, not so much by the Goddess Herself, as
much as by the person. Unlike other deities, Hekate is less direct and
more influential, meaning She works in more subtle and indirect ways as
well as more affecting ones, since She approaches you in a gentle
fashion as opposed to a strong, straightforward manner.
If Hekate calls to you, don't freak out. She can be strict but also very
rewarding. As Hesiod says: "He who has her favor will be showered with
riches, for it is within her power." (paraphrased) . However, be wary.
She won't tolerate the unworthy.
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
Footnotes:
Hekate: Her Sacred Fires, edited by Sorita D'Este
the Theoi (dot) com website
'May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.' The Universal Heart Center http://www.freewebs.com/moshayra
- 8.
-
IS VEDIC CIVILIZATION THE REMNANTS OF THE LEGENDARY ATLANTIS
Posted by: "Ash" mhc4sure@yahoo.com mhc4sure
Sat Oct 9, 2010 3:26 pm (PDT)
Source: Jodi
IS VEDIC CIVILIZATION THE REMNANTS OF THE LEGENDARY ATLANTIS
In the course of our journey to find out where we came from, there has
been many theories most of them backed by scientific explanation and
proofs. Archaeologists, Anthropologists, Geologists, Paleontologists,
and Historians all have given us theories after theories and all with
some amount of scientific data and evidences. In spite of all their
efforts there are many archaeological, anthropological, geological,
finds and evidences that defies straight logic and defies the present
scientific status on the origin of civilization. To me one of the most
intriguing evidence of the origin of civilization is the Vedic
scriptures. The scriptures are a store house of knowledge and
evidences of the origin of civilization which when analyzed and
studied will push the date of the origin of intelligent human
civilization much later than what we currently know and what we are
currently taught and made to belief. In fact now a day studies are
being conducted in this area and scientists, historians, linguists,
anthropologists are now looking at the Vedas in a different light.
Writers like Dr David Frawley, Graham Hancock, Dr Michael Cremo,
Zacharia sitchin , Dr B.G.Sidharth, Dr.Sidharth Kak have done
extensive studies of the Vedic scriptures and because of them, today
the perception towards the scriptures all over the world seems to be changing.
In most examinations of lost civilizations, there has been a
surprising tendency to leave India out of the picture. While the
wonders of Egypt or Sumeria are often discussed, the equally great
wonders of ancient India are seldom mentioned. This is strange because
India is the main country that has preserved our ancient human
heritage, both materially and spiritually. For example, in India today
one can observe the same type of temple worship still being practiced
like that which once occurred in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Greece or
Mexico, along with the same emphasis on the spiritual and the sacred
as the focus of life. India has extensive archaeological remains that
are among the largest and oldest in the world. Harappan India or India
of the so-called âIndus Valley Civilizationâ was the largest urban
civilization in the world of its times in the third millennium BC
(3100-1900 BCE), with major sites extending from the Ganges river in
the east to Afghanistan in the west, from the border of Iran to near
Bombay. However, Indiaâs role in ancient civilization has been largely
ignored in favor of more culturally comfortable, though geographically
much smaller cultures in the Near East, in spite of the fact that such
ancient cultures frequently lauded the greatness of India themselves.
How many of us know that the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia
would fit easily into Harappan India with much room to spare, so much
larger was the Indian civilization. There has been an even greater
ignoring of the Vedic literature of India, which is by far the largest
that has been preserved from the ancient world. The many thousands of
pages of this poetic literature dwarf all that the rest of the world
has managed to save from such early eras. Yet instead of putting Vedic
literature on par with the Pyramids of Egypt in terms of
civilizational achievements, scholars reduce the Vedas to the rantings
of illiterate nomads from Central Asia, who by all accounts should
have left no literature anyway. The spiritual wisdom of the Vedic
mantras, shlokas, and the story telling in the form of quatrants, is
ignored according to a view that the Vedas are only a nature poetry of
barbarian invaders. This is in spite of the fact that the Vedas were
the foundation for the great yogic and mystical traditions of Asia
through Hindu and Buddhist traditions and the whole science of Yoga,
which frequently refer to them. Not only has Vedic literature been
ignored, there has been an additional effort to keep the Vedic
literature separate from the great archaeological remains in the
country of the various Harappan sites. We are told that the great
urban civilization of ancient India and the great Vedic literature
that India preserved as its ancient heritage are not connected to each
other at all. We are left with âa civilization without a literatureâ
and a âliterature without a civilizationâ , though both a great
literature and a great civilization came from ancient India and often
use the same symbols. This is in evidence in the many Vedic images
found in Harappan sites and on Harappan seals like the Brahma bull,
figures in yoga postures, Shiva-like Gods, fire altars and swastikas.
Here the new geology and marine archaeology has ruled in favor of the
ancients. Vedic literature describes its homeland on a long lost river
called the Sarasvati, which according to Vedic descriptions flowed
east of the Indus from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea. Modern
satellite photography has clearly indicated the existence of this
great river, as have numerous geological and ground water studies
conducted over the last few decades, which show that the Sarasvati was
once over ten kilometers in width and flowed from the mountains to the
sea, dwarfing the nearby Indus. As the Vedas say, the Sarasvati was
the largest river of the region at the time. It was the center of a
great civilization and the vast majority of ancient Indian and
Harappan ruins have been found on the now dried banks of the Sarasvati.
In my earlier articles I have made an effort to bring to my readers
this vastness of the Vedic scriptures and the scientific nature of the
scriptures. I have made an effort to let my readers know that the
Vedic civilization is by no means a civilization of the natives as
projected by the West, but a civilization which was very advanced,
scientific, and very prolific. This civilization was in fact the
progenitor of many civilizations in the world. AND the Vedic
civilization was probably the oldest civilization and the only
civilization that evolved after the last glaciations some 15000 years
ago. It gave rise to many other civilization in the world but in the
Indian subcontinent ( I am not talking of any political boundary
here ) this civilization has been a continuous phenomenon till date.
Writing this article I must write about Bal Gangadhar Tilak who was
also known as Lokmanya Tilak. It was his work on the Vedic
civilization that sparked lot of anger among the then British
Government . Bal Gangadhar Tilak, was an Indian nationalist, social
reformer and freedom fighter who was the first popular leader of the
Indian Independence Movement. Tilak sparked the fire for complete
independence in Indian consciousness, and is considered the father of
Hindu nationalism as well. â Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have
it!â This famous quote of his is very popular and well-remembered in
India even today.
Reverently addressed as Lokmanya (meaning âBeloved of the peopleâ or
âRevered by the worldâ), Tilak was a scholar of Indian history,
Sanskrit, Hinduism, mathematics and astronomy. He was born on July 23,
1856, in a village near Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, into a middle class
Chitpavan Brahmin family. Tilak was an avid student with a special
aptitude for mathematics. He was among Indiaâs first generation of
youth to receive a modern, college education. Tilak authored the well-
regarded âThe Orionâ, or, Researches into the antiquities of the
Vedas (1893) in which he used astronomy to establish that the Vedic
people were present in India at least as early as the 4th millennium
BC. Later, in 1903, he wrote the much more speculative Arctic Home in
the Vedas. In it he argued that the Vedas could only have been
composed in the Arctics, and the Aryan bards brought them south after
the onset of the last Ice age. The rig Veda, the oldest of the
Vedas, if was composed in the arctic region then it means that there
was a civilization which was present in such a distant past and post
the last glaciations could this very civilization moved to all
possible part of the world where it felt it could be safe from the
impending disastrous effects of the glaciations. Then would it be
right enough to presume that the Vedic civilization, as we know it
today, is the logical conclusion of a much older, much scientific,
much well organized civilization? A civilization which is not present
now, a civilization that exists only in the legends?
His passion was cartography. His high rank within the Turkish navy
allowed him to have a privileged access to the Imperial Library of Constantinople.
The Turkish admiral admits in a series of notes on the map that he
compiled and copied the data from a large number of source maps, some
of which dated back to the fourth century BC or earlier.
The Piri Reis map shows the western coast of Africa, the eastern coast
of South America, and the northern coast of Antarctica. The northern
coastline of Antarctica is perfectly detailed. The most puzzling
however is not so much how Piri Reis managed to draw such an accurate
map of the Antarctic region 300 years before it was discovered, but
that the map shows the coastline under the ice. Geological evidence
confirms that the latest date Queen Maud Land could have been charted
in an ice-free state is 4000 BC. The official science has been saying
all along that the ice-cap which covers the Antarctic is million years old.
The Piri Reis map shows that the northern part of that continent has
been mapped before the ice did cover it. That should make think it has
been mapped million years ago, but thatâs impossible since mankind did
not exist at that time.
Further and more accurate studies have proven that the last period of
ice-free condition in the Antarctic ended about 6000 years ago. There
are still doubts about the beginning of this ice-free period, which
has been put by different researchers everything between year 13000 and 9000 BC.
The question is: Who mapped the Queen Maud Land of Antarctic 6000
years ago? Which unknown civilization had the technology or the need
to do that?
It is well-known that the first civilization, according to the
traditional history, developed in the mid-east around year 3000 BC,
soon to be followed within a millennium by the Indus valley and the
Chinese ones. So, accordingly, none of the known civilizations could
have done such a job. Who was here 4000 years BC, being able to do
things that NOW are possible with the modern technologies? Therefore
When Tilak said about a civilization post last glaciations and the
location being the Arctic he was not just making a conjecture but he
had definitive evidence which he certainly found in the Vedic
scriptures. For example, the sacred book Rig-Veda contains a story of
a great civilization that existed 18 million years ago on the
continent Oryana. The location of the continent could be easily
identifiable with the help of Hindu sacred writings. According to
them, the city of Arka, a capital of the united empire, was situated
beneath the Polar Star i.e. on the territory of the present-day
Arctic. Could the name Oryana compel Tilak to name his research âThe Orionâ
Over 11,000 years ago there existed an island nation located in the
middle of the Atlantic Ocean(?) populated by a noble and powerful
race. The people of this land possessed great wealth thanks to the
natural resources found throughout their island. The island was a
center for trade and commerce. The rulers of this land held sway over
the people and land of their own island and well into Europe and
Africa. This was the island of Atlantis.
Atlantis was the domain of Poseidon, god of the sea. When Poseidon
fell in love with a mortal woman, Cleito, he created a dwelling at the
top of a hill near the middle of the island and surrounded the
dwelling with rings of water and land to protect her. Cleito gave
birth to five sets of twin boys who became the first rulers of
Atlantis. The island was divided among the brothers with the eldest,
Atlas, first King of Atlantis, being given control over the central
hill and surrounding areas. Plato was a student of Socrates until the
latterâs death in 399 BC at the hands of the Athenian authorities.
After his teacherâs death, Plato traveled extensively, including
journeys in Egypt.
In 387 BC he returned to Athens and founded the Academy, a school of
science and philosophy that became the model for the modern
university. Perhaps the most famous student of the Academy was
Aristotle whose teachings have had tremendous impact on philosophy
through today. Due to the Academyâs safekeeping, many of Platoâs works
have survived. His extant writings are in the form of letters and
dialogues, the most famous of which is probably The Republic. His
writings cover subjects ranging from knowledge to happiness to
politics to nature. Two of his dialogues, Timeaus and Critias, hold
the only known original references to the island of Atlantis.
In the world these are the only two epics Timeaus and Critias wherein
there is a mention of such a civilization. THE ATLANTIS CIVILIZATION.
The epics goes on to describe the structure or the city plan of the
Atlantis and the daily lives of the Atlanteans. At the top of the
central hill, a temple was built to honor Poseidon which housed a
giant gold statue of Poseidon riding a chariot pulled by winged
horses. It was here that the rulers of Atlantis would come to discuss
laws, pass judgments, and pay tribute to Poseidon. To facilitate
travel and trade, a water canal was cut through of the rings of land
and water running south for 5.5 miles (~9 km) to the sea. The city of
Atlantis sat just outside the outer ring of water and spread across
the plain covering a circle of 11 miles (1.7 km). This was a densely
populated area where the majority of the population lived. Beyond the
city lay a fertile plain 330 miles (530 km) long and 110 miles (190
km) wide surrounded by another canal used to collect water from the
rivers and streams of the mountains. The climate was such that two
harvests were possible each year. One in the winter fed by the rains
and one in the summer fed by irrigation from the canal.
Surrounding the plain to the north were mountains which soared to the
skies. Villages, lakes, rivers, and meadows dotted the mountains.
Besides the harvests, the island provided all kinds of herbs, fruits,
and nuts. An abundance of animals, including elephants, roamed the
island. For generations the Atlanteans lived simple, virtuous lives.
But slowly they began to change. Greed and power began to corrupt
them. When Zeus saw the immorality of the Atlanteans he gathered the
other gods to determine a suitable punishment.
Soon, in one violent surge it was gone. The island of Atlantis, its
people, and its memory were swallowed by the sea.
Geologists, both mainstream and alternative, agree that the evidence
is overwhelming that there was a massive global catastrophe in around
10,000 BC that ended the last Ice Age and altered the face of the
planet in almost every way. For the people alive at that time it must
have been an experience we canât imagine. The sea levels rising 300
feet in a week, submerging all beaches and coastal lands, torrential
rainstorms measuring in feet instead of inches, worldwide hurricanes,
supervolcanic eruptions turning the sky black and blotting out the sun
for months. A waterfall as wide as the Bosphorous Strait filling up
the Black Sea like a bathtub. The human survivors of this cataclysm
would never ever have forgotten it and would most certainly have told
their children and grandchildren about it; and those subsequent
generations would have passed on the story to their own descendants.
This memory endured to the present day to become these folk-legends of
the Great Flood etc. However, conventional studies of prehistory say
that 12,000 years ago humans existed in small groups; the Neolithic
Age had only just begun and most people still lived in nomadic hunter-
gatherer cultures. There were no cities, no nation-states like
Atlantis is said to be and only a handful of settled towns numbering
no more than a few hundred people. Many Mavericks have claimed that
the myths describing a sophisticated prehistoric civilization are in
fact real and the conventional scientists have got it wrong. However
this alternative, minority view lacked hard evidence until recently.
Plato concedes that he learnt the legend of Atlantis from Solon who,
in turn, got it from the Egyptians. But those, in their turn, learnt
it from the Hindus of Punt (Indonesia). Punt was the Ancestral Land
(To-wer), the Island of Fire whence the Egyptians originally came, in
the dawn of times, expelled by the cataclysm that razed their land.
From there also came the Aryans, the Hebrews and Phoenicians, as well
as the other nations that founded the magnificent civilizations of
olden times. Here we see the first glimpse of the Vedic connection.
Could Rig Veda the oldest of the Vedas have any mention of this
civilization? Many cultures from all over the Pacific make reference
to this land. Here are just a few: The legends of Easter Island speak
of Hiva, which sank beneath the waves as people fled, while one Samoan
legend calls a similar place Poluto. The Maoris of New Zealand still
talk about arriving long ago from a sinking island called Hawaiki, a
vast and mountainous place on the other side of the water. The myths
and traditions of India abound with references. The Rig Veda speaks of
âthe three continents that wereâ; the third was home to a race called
the Danavas. A land called Rutas was an immense continent far to the
east of India and home to a race of sun-worshippers. But Rutas was
torn asunder by a volcanic upheaval and sent to the ocean depths.
Fragments remained as Indonesia and the Pacific islands, and a few
survivors reached India, where they became the elite Brahman caste.
Hopi Legend â" On the bottom of the seas lie all the proud cities, the
flying patuwvotas [shields] and the worldly treasures corrupted with
evil. Faced with disaster, some people hid inside the earth while
others escaped by crossing the ocean on reed rafts, using the islands
as stepping-stones. The same story of escape to dry land appears in
the Popol Vuh â" the Mayan story of creation. Augustus Le Plongeon,
(1826-1908) a 19th century researcher and writer who conducted
investigations of the Maya ruins in the Yucatan announced that he had
translated ancient Mayan writings, which allegedly showed that the
Maya of Yucatan were older than the later civilizations of Atlantis
and Egypt, and additionally told the story of an even older continent
of Mu, whose survivors founded the Maya civilization. Later students
of the Ancient Maya writings argue that Le Plongeonâs âtranslationsâ
were based on little more than his vivid imagination. Stay tuned as I
will be uploading more documentaries from this anime.
The Hindus have many traditions of a paradisial region where mankind
and civilization first originated. One such plase was Tripura, âthe
Triple Cityâ. with metallic walls and golden palaces. The
inhabitants of Tripura were originally extremely pious, but with the
passage of time, they became evil and perverse, and were destroyed by
Shiva. It is because of this feat that Shiva got the epithet of
Tripurantaka (âDestroyer of Tripuraâ). Tripura was built upon a
mountain so lofty, that it was said to reside in the skies. Another
Hindu legend on a lost empire concerns Lanka,and is told in detail in
the Ramayana. The saga of the destruction of Lanka by Rama and
Hanumant was of which Homerâs Illiad was based. Just as the Ramayana
tells the story of Lanka and the rescue of Shita (the wife of Rama)
who was taken by the evil Ravana. The Illiad recounts the
destruction of Troy and the rescue of Helen who was taken by Paris.
The Mahabharata relates the fall of Krishnaâs mighty empire during the
great war between the Lunars and the Solars (the Kurus and Pandus).
Hastinapura, the capital of the Pandu empire, was the âCity of the
Pillarsâ (Hastina-pura) â" or the âCity of the Nagasâ. The
Mahabharata also tells of Dvaraka, the capital of Krishna, located on
an island in the middle of the seas. Krishnaâs capital, Dvaraka, sunk
under the the sea and their divine hero died in the Great War.
Dravidian traditions speak of a vast sunken land known as âRutasâ that
was located towards the south-east of India. The Dravidas claim to
have moved to India from that land before it sunk under the sea,
during a a great catacylsm. The name Rutas is a reflection of the
Sanskrit word â radix rudhâ which means âredâ and Dravidian word
âruta:â which means âto be redâ , âto burnâ. These etyms evoke the
âIsland of Fireâ and may elude to the âLand of the Redsâ ( one of the
many mystical names of Atlantis) The Dravidas claimed to have been
Kshatryias (âWarriorsâ), an Indian caste whose heraldic colour is red.
The myth of the Celestial Jerusalem, told in the Book of Revelation,
stems directly from the Hindu traditions of Lanka, the âQueen of the
Wavesâ. Lanka, whose history is told in the Ramayana, was the actual
archetype of Platoâs Atlantis, as well as Homerâs Troy. Lanka was
built upon a lofty mountain (Mt. Trikuta = Mt. Atlas or Meru), and was
said âto fly in the air, scratching the belly of heavenâ. Hindu myths
also tell how Lanka, with âits towers and walls of stone clad with
metalâ was pulled out of the summit of the Holy Mountain (Meru) by the
North Wind (Vayu) and thrown into the seas, where it drowned with all
its vast population. Interestingly enough, the same myth, with Atlas
(i. e., Atlantis) substituting for Lanka, is also encountered in
Greece. Atlas, often identified with Hesperus, the Evening Star, was
thrown into the ocean by Boreas, the North Wind who is the Greek
counterpart of Vayu. There Atlas drowned, and was to be found no more,
just as happened with Lanka and, indeed, with Atlantis.
The New Jerusalem is Atlantis, reborn from its cinders, as a sort of
Phoenix, the bird that personifies Paradise in Greek myths. These
myths were indeed copied from Egypt who, in turn, cribbed them from
India. India and, more exactly, Indonesia, is the true land of the
Phoenix, as is relatively easy to show, since it is from there that
comes the name of the Benu bird of the Egyptians and that of the
Phoenix of the Greeks.
This mystic bird was called Vena in the Rig Veda. So, if the Phoenix
indeed symbolizes Atlantis-Paradise resurging from its own cinders, as
we believe it does, there can be little doubt that the legend is
originally Vedic, and originated in the Indies. The name means nothing
that makes sense in either Egyptian or Greek. But in the holy tongues
of India it means the idea of Eros (Love) and, more exactly, the Sun
of Justice that symbolizes Atlantis rising from the waters of the
primordial abyss. This myth forms the essence of the one of the
Celestial Jerusalem, as well as, say, those of the Orphic Cosmogonies,
those of the Egyptians, and those of most other ancient nations.
Other Hindu legends tell of Agartha (or Shambhalla), the subterranean
realm of the King of the World. According to this tradition, it is
from Shambhalla that will surge Kalkin, (The King of the World) for
the final battle of the end of times. Kalkin will lead his hosts, the
Sons of Light, to victory against the Sons of Darkness. The myth of
Shambhalla is the archetype from which were copied the similar ones of
the Essenes and of the Christians. The Celestial Jerusalem from St.
Johnâs Revelation, the myth of Kalkin prefigures the Second Coming of
Jesus Christ. Many experts have correlated the traditions of Agartha
and Shambhalla with those of Atlantis and the Celestial Jerusalem. In
fact, Atlantis too will resurge in the end of times in precisely the
same manner as the Celestial Jerusalem.
It is significant to note that, according to geo physical research
based on the movement of the continental plates, the Lanka of Ravana
was situated in the continent of Lemuria, also known as Kumari Kandam,
which was a land mass, connecting the Deccan plateau in South India
and the island of Ceylon, with intervening straits to be crossed, with
Madagascar in the West, Australia on the East and Antarctica on the
South, until it sank into the Indian ocean in stages over 3,500 years
ago, as mentioned in the writings of the German geologist Wagner anti
the eminent Indologist Sir T.W. Holderness.
The research done by Fr. Heras and Sir John Marshall the archaeologist
and other scholars into the archaeological finds at Mohenjodaro and
Harappa point to the existence of an earlier highly developed
Dravidian civilization in the deep South which, had influenced the
Indus-Valley Aryan civilization of the North.
The available historical evidence referring to the Dravidian
civilization commences with the records that have come down to us of
the Tamil literary writings during the past 12,000 years, which have
been divided by historians into three periods, called the First Sangam
period from 9600 BC to 5200 BC, spanning the Satya and Treta yugas,
the Second Sangam period from 5200 BC to 1500 BC spanning the Treta
and Dwapara yugas, and the Third Sangam period from 1500 BC to 600 AD
spanning the Dwapara and Kali yugas. According to the present cycle of
four yugas, namely Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali yugas, in their
descending arc of 12,000 years and ascending arc of another 12,000
years, as stated by Sri Yukteswar in his famous treatis called âHoly
Scienceâ, we are now in the ascending arc of Dwapara yuga completed
the Kali yuga period lasting from 600 BC to 1800 AD. The Mahabharata
war, where Lord Krishna propagated the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita
to Arjuna, is reckoned to have taken place during the Second Sangam
period about the year 3100 BC. The First Sangam, which was founded and
nurtured by Siddha Sri Agastiyar, lasted for 4,400 years and had its
centre in the city of Dakshina Madura in the continent of Lemuria.
The Second Sangam, which was also established under the patronage of
Sri Agastiyar, lasted for 3,700 years and had its centre in the city
of Kavatapuram in the continent of Lemuria, after the records in the
city of Dakshina Madura had gone under water. The Third Sangam, also
sponsored by Sri Agastiyar, lasted for 1,800 years and had its centre
at Uttara Madura, namely the modern city of Madurai, which lays north
of the earlier centres, after the whole of the Lemurian continent had
gone under water.
After the commencement of the gradual inundation of the Lemurian
continent, it is reported that Sri Agastiyar led a migration of
Dravidians to Java and Cambodia and Central and South America. The
legends of the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs of South America regarding the
founding of their cultures by tall beared white-robed teachers confirm
the tradititional view that the Lemurians, under the guidance of their
siddhas, colonized North and South America, as well as the Nile
Valley, when they founded the Egyptian civilization.
It is significant to note that Edgar Cayce the well-known âsleeping
prophetâ of America, had in the course of his recent voluminous
psychic messages given out by him while in a state of trance mentioned
a similar sinking of the continent of Atlantis in stages into the
Atlantic Ocean over a period of several centuries between 12,000 BC
and 10,000 BC, before the sinking of the Lemurian continent.
Accoding to Prof:Arysio Santos in his book âAtlantis- The Lost
Continent Finally Foundâ
The Greeks copied their legends on Atlas and Atlantis from the Hindu
ones on Atalas (Shiva) and on Atala, the sunken paradise of the
Hindus. As in the Greek traditions, Atalas â" whose name is Sanskrit
and means âPillarâ â" was deemed to be the âPillar of the Worldâ, just
as was Atlas in Greece. Atala was, like Atlantis, a sunken continent
destroyed by a fiery cataclysm, and which lay in the Outer Ocean.
Since the Greek legend is of Hindu origin and was simply transferred
to their western region when the Greeks moved to their present
whereabouts, it is idle to quest for Atlantis in the ocean nowadays
called Atlantic. Instead, we must seek Atlantis in the ocean which the
Hindus called âOcean of the Atlanteansâ or âWestern Oceanâ, and which
is none other than the Indian Ocean.
The Hindus have many traditions on a sunken continent that was the
paradisial region where mankind and civilization first originated. One
such was Tripura, âthe Triple Cityâ. When we recall the fact that
Atlantis was, like Tripura, a triple city with metallic walls and
golden palaces, we cannot but conclude that the two traditions, if
indeed based on actual fact, refer to the one and same thing.
Moreover, as happened with Atlantis, the inhabitants of Tripura were
originally extremely pious. But, with the passage of time, they also
became evil and perverse, and were destroyed by Shiva. It is because
of this feat that Shiva got the epithet of Tripurantaka (âDestroyer of
Tripuraâ). As with Lanka (see below) and Atlantis, Tripura was built
upon a mountain so lofty, that it was said to reside in the skies.
Another Hindu legend on a sunken empire that was the archetype of
Atlantis concerns Lanka, and is told in detail in the Ramayana. The
saga of the destruction of Lanka by Rama and Hanumant was the
original on which Homerâs Illiad was based. Just as the Ramayana tells
the story of Lanka and the rescue of Shita, the spouse of Rama
kidnapped by the evil Ravana, the Illiad recounts the destruction of
Troy and the rescue of the fickle Helen, kidnapped by Paris. Troy,
with its bronzy walls and golden palaces was just one of the many
allegories of Atlantis. In contrast to the small village discovered by
Schliemann in Turkey, the true Troy lay in the Outer Ocean. It was a
magnificent capital and sank into the ocean after its destruction and
incending in the great war with the âGreeksâ of an earlier age. The
parallels between Troy and Atlantis are too many to be discarded. And
those between Platoâs Atlantis and the Lanka of the Hindus show, in an
unequivocal manner, that it is in the Far Orient and the underseas,
and not in the Mediterranean region, that we must quest for the real
Troy and the real Atlantis.
The Mahabharata, the other great Hindu classical saga that completes
the Ramayana, tells of the mighty empire of Krishna and its
destruction in the great war between the Lunars and the Solars (the
Kurus and Pandus). This great war is, like the one of Lanka or that of
Troy, the true archetype on which Plato based his history of Atlantis.
Hastinapura, the capital of the Pandu empire, was the âCity of the
Pillarsâ (Hastina-pura) or, yet, the âCity of the Nagasâ. These two
are epithets associated with the Atlanteans and with the Pillar of
Heaven in the Far East. The Mahabharata also tells of Dvaraka, the
capital of Krishna, located in an island in the middle of the seas.
Krishnaâs capital, Dvaraka, sunk underseas when the divine hero died
in the great war, more or less in the way Atlantis went under,
according to Plato.
Dravidian traditions speak of a vast sunken continent towards the
south-east of India called Rutas. The Dravidas claim to have moved to
India from that continent when it sunk away underseas, in a great
cataclysm. The name of Rutas apparently relates to the Sanskrit radix
rudh (âredâ), and the Dravidian ruta (âto be redâ, âto burnâ). These
etyms evoke the âIsland of Fireâ and may be an allusion to the
fabulous âLand of the Redsâ that was one of the many mystic names of
Atlantis in the ancient traditions. Indeed, the Dravidas claimed to
have been Kshatryias (âWarriorsâ), an Indian caste whose heraldic
colour is the red one.
The Phoenicians â" whose name also means âredsâ in Greek â" claimed,
like the Dravidas, to have come from an âIsland of Fireâ located
beyond the Indian Ocean (or Erythraean) overseas. That means the
Indies, indeed located in this âOcean of the Redsâ (Erythraean) .
Hence, the Phoenician homeland seems to be originally the same as the
Rutas (or âIsland of Fireâ) of the Dravidas. The Egyptians too called
themselves âRedsâ (Rot or Khem, in their tongue). And they also
claimed to have come from this âIsland of Fireâ in the Indian (or
Erythraean) overseas. Would all the traditions of these virtuous
nations be lying? Or is it that we interpret their myths erroneously?
The myth of the Celestial Jerusalem, told in the Book of Revelation,
stems directly from the Hindu traditions on Lanka, the âQueen of the
Wavesâ. Lanka, whose history is told in the Ramayana, was the actual
archetype of Platoâs Atlantis, as well as Homerâs Troy. Lanka was
built upon a lofty mountain (Mt. Trikuta = Mt. Atlas or Meru), and was
said âto fly in the air, scratching the belly of heavenâ. Hindu myths
also tell how Lanka, with âits towers and walls of stone clad with
metalâ was pulled out of the summit of the Holy Mountain (Meru) by the
North Wind (Vayu) and thrown into the seas, where it drowned with all
its vast population. Interestingly enough, the same myth, with Atlas
(i. e., Atlantis) substituting for Lanka, is also encountered in
Greece. Atlas, often identified with Hesperus, the Evening Star, was
thrown into the ocean by Boreas, the North Wind who is the Greek
counterpart of Vayu. There Atlas drowned, and was to be found no more,
just as happened with Lanka and, indeed, with Atlantis.
Other Hindu legends tell of Agartha (or Shambhalla), the subterranean
realm of the King of the World. According to this tradition, it is
from Shambhalla that is to surge Kalkin, (âthe White Knightâ) for the
final battle of the end of times. Kalkin, the White Knight, is to lead
his hosts, the Sons of Light, to victory against the Sons of Darkness.
The myth of Shambhalla is the archetype from which were copied the
similar ones of the Essenes and of the Christians. Again, as with the
Celestial Jerusalem of St. Johnâs Revelation, the myth of Kalkin
prefigures the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Many experts have
correlated the traditions of Agartha and Shambhalla with those of
Atlantis and the Celestial Jerusalem. In fact, Atlantis too will
resurge in the end of times (now?) in precisely the same manner
prescribed for the Celestial Jerusalem of the Book of Revelation.
Then, will the Golden Age be restored to the world, for Atlantis is
truly the Paradise Lost we all have been expecting for so long.
Celtic traditions often speak of an âIsland of the Lionsâ. This
mysterious island appears in Hindu traditions as Saka-dvipa or Simhala-
dvipa (âIsland of the Lionsâ, in Sanskrit). This âIsland of the Lionsâ
also figures in many other different traditions. In Celtic traditions,
the Island of the Lions also called Avalon. The name of Avalon has
been interpreted both as âLand of the Apple Treesâ and as âIsland of
the Lionsâ (Ava-lon). This paradisial island is also called Lyonesse
(Lyon-ys or âIsland of the Lionsâ) or Llyn Llion (âLake Lionâ), the
lake which reputedly overwhelmed the whole world with its waters when
it overflowed, causing the Flood.
The âIsland of the Lionsâ just mentioned (see above item) is no other
than the Simhala-dvipa (or Serendip) of the Hindus. Serendip is
indeed the âIsland of the Seresâ (Seren-dip), which is the same as
Taprobane (Sumatra). The Seres are âthe people of the silkâ (serica =
âsilkâ, in Latin). They are described as a blond, blue-eyed, tall
people by Pliny, Solinus and others. As we just said, Serendip is the
same as Taprobane or Sumatra, and should not be confused with Shri
Lanka (Ceylon), its Indian counterpart. The word âlionâ, in India, is
synonymous with âheroâ (gandha or simha in Skt., singa in Dravida,
etc.), so that the name of Simhala-dvipa indeed means âIsland of the
Heroesâ. And these âHeroesâ of old are no other than those of
Atlantis, destroyed in the Flood, as mentioned in the Book of Genesis
(ch. 6).
It is from the primordial Lemurian Atlantis that derive all our myths
and religious traditions, the very ones that allowed the ascent of Man
above the beasts of the field. From Atlantis derive all our science
and our technology: agriculture, cattle herding, the alphabet,
metallurgy, astronomy, music, religion, and so forth. These inventions
are so clever and so advanced that they seem as natural as the air we
breath and the gods we worship. But they are all incredibly advanced
inventions that came to us from the dawn of times, from the twin
Atlantises we utterly forgot.
It is in India and in Indonesia, that, even today, we find the secret
of Atlantis and Lemuria hidden behind the thick veil of their myths
and allegories. The crucial events are disguised inside the Hindu and
Buddhic religious traditions, or told as charming sagas like those of
the Ramayana and the Mahaharata. The error that led the ancients,
along with the modern researchers, into believing that Atlantis lay in
the Atlantic Ocean is easy to understand now that we know the true
whereabouts of the sunken continent. When humanity moved from
Indonesia into the regions of Europe and the Near East, the
âOccidental Oceanâ of the Hindus became the Oriental Ocean, for it
then lay towards the east.
The (Hindu) myths that told of Atlantis sinking in the Occidental
Ocean became interpreted as referring to the Atlantic Ocean, western
in regards to Europe, their new residence. The Hindus called the
sunken continent by the name of Atala (or Atalas) a name uncannily
similar to that of Atlas and of Atlantis (by the appending of the
suffix tis or tiv = âmountainâ, âislandâ, in Dravida, and pronounced
âtiwâ). It is from this base that names such as that of the mysterious
Keftiu of the Egyptians, the âIslands in the Middle of the Ocean (the
âGreat Greenâ)â ultimately came (Keftiu = Kap-tiv = âcapital islandâ
or âSkull Islandâ = âCalvaryâ in Dravida, the pristine language of
Indonesia). But this is a long story which we tell elsewhere,
presenting the detailed evidence for this uncanny allegation of ours.
Atlantis was a continent of the Atlantic Ocean where, according to
Plato, and advanced civilization developed some 11,600 years ago.
Plato affirms that, as the result of a huge volcanic cataclysm of
worldwide extent, this continent sunk away underseas, disappearing
forever. Official Science â" the one you learn at school â" rejects the
actual existence of Atlantis, as it has so far been unable to find any
traces of its reality. But the reason for that is simple to explain.
Everybody has been looking in the wrong locations, as Atlantis indeed
lies in the opposite side of the world.
Lemuria, on the other hand, is an even older version of Atlantis.
Lemuria is indeed the same as the Garden of Eden and other such
Paradises that in fact existed and were the actual birthplace of
Mankind and Civilization, precisely as the Bible and other Holy Books
affirm. From there, civilization spread to Atlantis and other parts of
the world, in the dawn of times, some 20 or 30 thousand years ago,
during the Ice Age.
In the vedic literature which are divided into the Rig-Veda, the
Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharveda. The Rig Veda being the
oldest. Although these scripture are said to have been divinely
revealed in India and to have taken place there, author Professor
Arysio Nunes dos Santos thinks that they actually refer to Atlantis,
which according to his theory was located where the South China Sea is
and Indonesia. This would have made ancient India the nearest outpost
of the Atlantean civilisation.
The Indonesian Islands and the Malay Peninsula that we nowadays
observe are the unsunken relicts of Lemurian Atlantis, the lofty
volcanic mountains that became the volcanic islands of this region,
the true site of Paradise in all ancient traditions. The sunken
portion of continental extension now forms the muddy, shallow bottoms
of the South China Sea. It is encircled by Indonesia and forms the
boundary of the Indian and the Pacific Oceans.
The greatest of all Lemurian colonies was Atlantis, founded in India,
already during the heydays of Lemuria, and which, in time, reached the
apex of human grandeur. Atlantis and Lemuria had prospered for a full
zodiacal era (2,160 years), when the great cataclysm destroyed their
common world, at the end of the Pleistocene, some 11,600 years ago.
The scant survivors of the cataclysm that sunk Lemuria away were
forced to flee their destroyed Paradise, moving first to India, the
site of Atlantis, which had been spared in its northern, loftier
portion. But the global catastrophe had also caused the end of the
Pleistocene Ice Age, and the melting of the Himalayan glaciers caused
huge floods of the rivers of Asia, rendering the region unfit for
human habitation. These floods ravaged this remainder of Atlantis,
already greatly destroyed by the original cataclysm, the giant
conflagration of the Indonesian volcanoes and the huge tsunamis they
caused, as well as by the plague that ravaged their country in their
wake.
Again, this doomed people was obliged to flee, emigrating, along the
ensuing millennia, to remote places such as Egypt, Mesopotamia,
Palestine, North Africa, Europe, North Asia, the Near Orient and even
Oceania and the Americas. Some came on foot, in huge hordes like those
of the Israelite exodus. Others came by ship, like Noah in his Ark or
Aeneas with his fleet, to found the great civilizations of the
ancient world.
The great civilizations that we know of, in the Indus Valley, in
Egypt, in Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Mexico and even the
Americas were all Atlantean colonies founded by the survivors of the
cataclysm that destroyed the twin Paradises of Atlantis and Lemuria.
These colonists, of course, attempted to recreate their Eden in their
new homeland.
The newcomers named each topographical feature after the archetypes of
the pristine abode just as immigrants will do the same nowadays. Such
is the reason why we keep finding vestiges of Atlantis everywhere,
from Brazil and North America to Spain, Crete, and even Africa and
North Europe. All these ancient civilizations spoke of Civilizing
Heroes such as Manu, Noah, Aeneas, the Oannés, Hotu Matua,
Quetzalcoatl, Kukulkan, Bochica and, of course, Atlas and Hercules,
the omnipresent Twins that founded civilizations everywhere.
Prof. Santos, who was trained in academic science and was a professor
of nuclear physics in Brazil, told me he had originally started his
research into Atlantis as a sceptic and unbeliever but having
researched throughly into world religions, occult traditions, geology
and word derivations he had become convinced it was very very real
indeed. It became a mission of his to get the knowledge that Atlantis
was real out to this crazy world. He had a completely new theory â"
that Atlantis could not be found because everyone had been looking in
the wrong place and that Platoâs work on the subject had been
misunderstood. Arysio believed that the true location of Atlantis was
in the area of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The
Indonesian islands are all that is left of it. He also felt that India
was one of its nearest and many colonies and that the holy books known
as the Vedas and the Hindu religion are based on and in Atlantis. The
professor also believed that many other religious ceremonies such as
baptism were memories of Atlantis and how it perished under the seas.
Arysio thought that that Guanche language was derived from Dravidian
and set out a very good case proving this by comparing Dravidian words
with those of the Guanche â" many are nearly identical. He had also
written on The Mysterious Origin of the Guanches. He believed that the
âGolden Ageâ and the Garden of Eden and âParadiseâ were all memories
of Atlantis as it once was and that after its destruction the
survivors had to begin again and had lost all their technological
advances and were reduced to a very primitive way of living.
His idea was that Atlantis was destroyed following a cataclysmic
volcanic eruption and tsunami that shook the entire world. He also
feels that it might have been triggered deliberately in nuclear war by
these ancient people who lived on Atlantis and he was praying this was
not going to be the fate of the world again.
In conclusion I can only say that here is another example of the
antiquity of the Vedic Civilization. Platoâs fabled city of Atlantis
though is a Myth it is a probable fact as all myths are distortion of
some facts which takes place in the distant past and it stays in the
memory of the population passed on from generation to generation
verbally. Thus becoming a Myth or a Legend. Corroborated with the
various evidences and studies it is a fair conclusion that Vedic
Civilization could be that remnants of the Atlantis Civilization.
Author has a masters degree in Anthropology from Calcutta
University.His website http://amlanroychowdhury.webs. com
'May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.' The Universal Heart Center http://www.freewebs.com/moshayra
- 9.
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Get Ready for Samhain!: Day 4: Samhain Rituals and Ceremonies
Posted by: "Cher Chirichello" CHIC0411@YAHOO.COM chic0411
Sat Oct 9, 2010 4:39 pm (PDT)
Get Ready for Samhain!
Day 4: Samhain Rituals and Ceremonies
From Patti Wigington, your Guide to Paganism / Wicca
The focus of nearly any Wiccan or Pagan sabbat celebration is the ritual.
Because different traditions honor different aspects of Samhain, however, there
are a variety of rituals you can perform to mark this night that reminds us of
the endless cycle of death and rebirth.
Celebrating the Harvest's End
Samhain represents the end of the harvest season. The crops are all dead or
dying, and where we once saw lush green plants, there is nothing left but brown
stalks. The perennials go dormant so that they may return to us in the spring.
Animals are brought in from the fields for the winter. This is the time to
hunker down for the coming season, and this mealtime ritual observes the
finality of the harvest. Honoring the End of the Harvest
A Samhain Rite for the God and Goddess
In some Wiccan and Pagan traditions, the Goddess moves into her aspect of Crone
at this time of year. At the same time, the God becomes the wild stag, the god
of the hunt, the game that dies so that we will have good to sustain us in the
winter. This ritual celebrates the God and Goddess in these late-autumn aspects.
Hold a God and Goddess Ritual
Samhain Rite for Life and Death
Samhain is a time like no other, in that we can watch as the earth literally
dies for the season. Leaves fall from the trees, the crops have gone brown, and
the land once more becomes a desolate place. However, at Samhain, when we take
the time to remember the dead, we can take time to contemplate this endless
cycle of life, death, and eventual rebirth. We can celebrate that cycle in
ritual, as well. Ritual for Life and Death
Ceremony to Honor Animals
This ceremony is designed to honor the spirits of the animals - both wild and
domestic. Man's relationship with animals goes back thousands and thousands of
years. They have been a source of food and clothing. They have protected us from
the things that lurk in the darkness. They have provided comfort and warmth. If
you have animals in your home -- pets or livestock -- this is their night. You
can do this rite as a stand-alone ritual, or tie it in to a multi-day
celebration of the harvest's end. Ritual to Honor Animals
Honoring the Ancestors at Samhain
In yesterday's lesson, we talked about creating an ancestor shrine at Samhain.
You can take that a step further by holding a ritual that specifically honors
your bloodline and your family. Samhain Ancestor Ritual
Samhain Ancestor Meditation
Samhain is known as the night when the veil between this world and the next is
at its thinnest. It's a time to sit back and honor the spirit world, and call
upon those ancestors who came before us. After all, if not for them, we wouldn't
be here. We owe them something, some gratitude for their ability to survive,
their strength, their spirit. Many Wiccans and Pagans choose Samhain as a time
to honor their ancestors. This ancestor meditation can help you get closer in
spirit to those who came before you. Ancestor Meditation
Is Halloween Anti-Pagan?
A reader is concerned that enjoying the fun of Halloween might be seen as
disrespectful to the solemnity of Samhain. So, it okay to enjoy both? Pagans and
Halloween
Tomorrow: Samhain Folklore and Legend
Ever wonder why we trick or treat? Tried to figure out what the point is behind
carving a pumpkin? Tomorrow, we'll look at some of the legends, folklore and
customs surrounding the Samhain season!
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Patti Wigington
Paganism / Wicca Guide
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- 10.
-
It is Anti Pagan to Celebrate Halloween?
Posted by: "Cher Chirichello" CHIC0411@YAHOO.COM chic0411
Sat Oct 9, 2010 4:39 pm (PDT)
A reader asks, "I was curious if it was anti-Pagan to celebrate Halloween? I'm
sort of worried it might seem disrespectful to go out collecting candy while
I'm supposed to be honoring the spirits of my dead ancestors. How do Halloween
and Samhain relate if at all to one another?"
Cher
New_Jersey_Pagans...Come in and Chat with us!
Main Yahoo Group NJP: http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/New_ Jersey_Pagans/
Ning Web sites: NJP: http://njpagans.ning.com/
Myspace NJP: http://www.myspace.com/njp_cher
Cher NJP Link: http://www.facebook.com/chic0411
Page NJP: http://www.facebook.com/# !/NJPagans
Group NJP: http://www.facebook.com/groups. php?ref=sb# /group.php? gid=93725735017
- 11a.
-
All About Halloween.......Mwaaaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha
Posted by: "Cher Chirichello" CHIC0411@YAHOO.COM chic0411
Sat Oct 9, 2010 6:40 pm (PDT)
I got this from another list. It was soooo good that i had to publish it here!
Enjoy! From Norm
Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31, usually by
children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is
celebrated in much of the Western world, though most commonly in the United
States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada and sometimes in
Australia and New Zealand. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older
versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other
Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in
the late 20th century.
The term "Halloween" derives from Hallowe'en, an old contraction, still retained
in Scotland and some parts of Canada, of "All Hallow's Eve," so called as it is
the day before All Saints day (observed by some Christians, including Roman
Catholics), which used to be called "All Hallows," derived from All Hallowed
Souls.
In Ireland, the name was Hallow Eve and this name is still used by some older
people. Halloween was formerly also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The
holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan
traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries (along with
Christmas and Easter, two other traditional northern European pagan holidays)
and given a Christian reinterpretation.
In Mexico, All Saint's Day, following Halloween, is the Day of the Dead.
Halloween is also called "Pooky Night" in some parts of Ireland, presumably
named after the puca, a mischievous spirit.
"Punkie Night" is observed on the last Thursday in October in the village of
Hinton St. George in the county of Somerset in England. On this night, children
carry lanterns made from hollowed-out mangel-wurzels (a kind of beet; in modern
days, pumpkins are used) with faces carved into them. They bring these around
the village, collecting money and singing the punkie song. 'Punkie' is derived
from 'pumpkin' or 'punk,' meaning 'tinder.'
Though the custom is only attested over the last century, and the mangel-wurzel
itself was introduced into English agriculture in the late 18th century, "Punkie
Night" appears to be much older even than the fable that now accounts for it.
The story goes that the wives of Hinton St. George went looking for their
wayward husbands at the fair held nearby at Chiselborough, the last Thursday in
October, but first hollowed out mangel wurzels in order to make lanterns to
light their way. The drunken husbands saw the eerie lights, thought they were
"goolies" (the restless spirits of children who had died before they were
baptized), and fled in terror. Children carry the punkies now. The event has
spread since about 1960 to the neighboring village of Chiselborough.
In the United Kingdom, the pagan Celts celebrated the Day of the Dead on
Halloween. The spirits supposedly rose from the dead and, in order to attract
them, food was left on the doors. To scare off the evil spirits, the Celts wore
masks. When the Romans invaded Britain, they embellished the tradition with
their own, which is the celebration of the harvest and honoring the dead.
These traditions were then passed on to the United States. Anoka, Minnesota,
USA, the self-proclaimed "Halloween Capital of the World," celebrates with a
large civic parade.
Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural
traditions hold that Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year when
the spirit world can make contact with the natural world and when magic is most
potent.
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain
(pronounced sow-in). It is the time between Samhain (pronounced "SOW-in" in
Ireland, SOW-een in Wales, "SAV-en" in Scotland or even "SAM-haine" in non
Gaelic speaking countries) and Brigid's Day "the period of little sun." Thus,
Samhain is often named the "Last Harvest" or "Summer's End". The Earth nods a
sad farewell to the God.
We know that He will once again be reborn of the Goddess and the cycle will
continue. This is the time of reflection, the time to honor the Ancients who
have gone on before us and the time of 'Seeing" (divination). As we contemplate
the Wheel of the Year, we come to recognize our own part in the eternal cycle of
Life.
While almost all Celtic based traditions recognize this Holiday as the end of
the "old" year, some groups do not celebrate the coming of the "new year" until
Yule. Some consider the time between Samhain and Yule as a time which does not
even exist on the Earthly plane. The "time which is no time" was considered in
the "old days" to be both very magickal and very dangerous. So even today, we
celebrate this Holiday with a mixture of joyous celebration and 'spine tingling"
reverence.
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United
Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their New Year on November 1. This day
marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold
winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. They believed
that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the
living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated
Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth.
In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the
presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic
priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent
on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of
comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. To commemorate the event,
Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and
animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts
wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to
tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their
hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred
bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course
of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of
Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally
commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the
Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the
incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition
of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands.
In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st as 'All Saints'
Day', a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the
pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related,
but church-sanctioned holiday.
The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle
English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night
of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
In 1000 A.D., the church made November 2 'All Souls' Day', a day to honor the
dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and
dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three
celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called
Hallowmas.
The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early
All Souls' Day parades in England.
During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give
them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the
family's dead relatives.
The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace
the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice,
which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children
who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and
money.
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween followed European and Celtic
roots and traditions. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back
to the Earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they
left their homes.
To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they
left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow
spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place
bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from
attempting to enter.
As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween
customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that
characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was
extremely limited there. It was much more common in Maryland and the southern
colonies.
As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the
American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to
emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to
celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell
each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also
featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the
middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but
Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new
immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing
Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of
Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began
to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a
practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women
believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their
future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday
more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks,
and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children
and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on
games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by
newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque"
out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of
its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth
century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered
holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment.
Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to
plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time.
By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had
evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of
young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic
centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily
accommodated.
Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also
revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire
community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also
prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with
small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow.
Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making
it the country's second largest commercial holiday.
Religious Viewpoints
The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween,
treating it as a purely secular entity devoted to celebrating imaginary spooks
and handing out candy. The secular celebration of Halloween may loom larger in
contemporary imagination than does All Saints' Day.
The mingling of Christian and pagan traditions in the development of Halloween,
and its real or assumed preoccupation with evil and the supernatural, have left
many modern Christians uncertain of how they should react towards the holiday.
Some fundamentalist and evangelical along with many Eastern Orthodox Christians
and Orthodox Jewish believers consider Halloween a pagan or Satanic holiday, and
refuse to allow their children to participate. In some areas, complaints from
fundamentalist Christians that the schools were endorsing a pagan religion have
led the schools to stop distributing UNICEF boxes at Halloween.
Other Christians, however, continue to connect the holiday with All Saints Day.
Some modern Christian churches commonly offer a "fall festival" or
harvest-themed alternative to Halloween celebrations.
Still other Christians hold the view that the holiday is not Satanic in origin
or practice and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children:
being taught about death and mortality actually being a valuable life lesson.
Ironically, considering that most fundamentalist sects are Protestant in nature,
many Protestant denominations celebrate October 31 as Reformation Day, which
commemorates the October 31, 1517 posting of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses.
Many mainline churches and religious schools, particularly Lutheran ones, meld
the two holidays without worrying about "Satanic influences."
Symbols of Halloween
Jack-o'-lanterns may be carved with a funny face. Halloween's theme is spooky or
scary things particularly involving death, black magic, or mythical monsters.
Commonly-associated Halloween characters include ghosts, witches, bats, black
cats, owls, goblins, zombies and demons, as well as certain fictional figures
like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster. Homes are often decorated with these
symbols around Halloween.
Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. In modern Halloween
images and products, purple, green, and red are also prominent.
Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, are also
reflected in symbols of Halloween.
The jack-o'-lantern, a carved vegetable lit by a candle inside, is one of
Halloween's most prominent symbols. In Britain and Ireland, a turnip was and
sometimes still is used, but immigrants to America quickly adopted the pumpkin
because it is much larger and easier to carve.
Many families that celebrate Halloween will carve a pumpkin into a scary or
comical face and place it on the home's doorstep on Halloween night for fun.
Traditionally, something like this was done in order to scare evil spirits away.
Halloween Customs
Observance of Halloween faded in the South of England from the 17th century
onwards, being replaced by the commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot on November
5. However it remained popular in Scotland, Ireland and the North of England. It
is only in the last decade that it again became popular in the South of England,
but as an entirely Americanized version.
The custom survives most accurately in Ireland, where the last Monday of October
is a public holiday. All schools close for the following week for mid-term,
commonly called the Halloween Break. As a result Ireland is the only country
where children never have school on Halloween and are therefore free to
celebrate it in the ancient and time-honored fashion.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have evolved from the European
custom called souling, similar to the wassailing customs associated with Yule.
On November 2, All Souls' Day, beggars would walk from village to village
begging for "soul cakes" - square pieces of bread with currants.
Christians would promise to say prayers on behalf of dead relatives helping the
soul's passage to heaven. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the
church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for
roaming spirits at the Samhain.
In Celtic parts of western Brittany, Samhain is still heralded by the baking of
kornigou. Kornigou are cakes baked in the shape of antlers to commemorate the
god of winter shedding his "cuckold" horns as he returns to his kingdom in the
Otherworld.
- 12a.
-
Why do you love the Halloween Witch?
Posted by: "Cher Chirichello" CHIC0411@YAHOO.COM chic0411
Sat Oct 9, 2010 6:42 pm (PDT)
Why do you love the Halloween Witch?
Describe what a witch really means to you?
Through out all the stories and fairytales,
what new perspectives do you have for the
Halloween Witch as we grow older?
(Keep it Real, isn't about traditions)
Cher
New_Jersey_Pagans...Come in and Chat with us!
Main Yahoo Group NJP: http://groups.yahoo.com/ group/New_ Jersey_Pagans/
Ning Web sites: NJP: http://njpagans.ning.com/
Myspace NJP: http://www.myspace.com/njp_cher
Cher NJP Link: http://www.facebook.com/chic0411
Page NJP: http://www.facebook.com/# !/NJPagans
Group NJP: http://www.facebook.com/groups. php?ref=sb# /group.php? gid=93725735017
- 13a.
-
Halloween Witch
Posted by: "Cher Chirichello" CHIC0411@YAHOO.COM chic0411
Sat Oct 9, 2010 6:54 pm (PDT)
Halloween Witch
Each year they parade her about, the traditional Halloween Witch.
Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair, a toothless mouth
beneath her deformed nose. Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a
claw protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on
wobbly legs. Most think this abject image to be the creation of a
prejudiced mind or merely a Halloween caricature. I disagree, I
believe this to be how Witches were really seen.
Consider that most Witches were women, were abducted in the night,
and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the secrecy of darkness
to be presented by light of day as a confessed Witch. Few if any saw
a frightened normal looking woman being dragged into a secret room
filled with instruments of torture, to be questioned until she
confessed to anything suggested to her and to give names or what ever would stop
the questions.
Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed
Witch. As the Witch was paraded through town en route to be burned,
hanged, drowned, stoned or disposed of in various other forms of
Christian love all created to free and save her soul from her
depraved body, the jeering crowds viewed the results of hours of
torture. The face bruised and broken by countless blows bore a hue of
sickly green. The once warm and loving smile gone replaced by a
grimace of broken teeth and torn gums that leers beneath a battered
disfigured nose. The disheveled hair conceals bleeding gaps of torn
scalp from whence cruel hands had torn away the lovely tresses.
Broken twisted hands clutched the wagon for support, fractured
fingers with nails torn away locked like groping claws to steady her
broken body. All semblance of humanity gone this was truly a demon, a
bride of Satan, a Witch.
I revere this Halloween Crone and hold her sacred above all. I honor
her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of man. Each
year I shed tears of respect when the mundane exhibit their symbol of
Christian love.
Petals & Thorns
poetry by angel © 1993 - 1999
- 13b.
-
Re: Halloween Witch
Posted by: "grambadger@juno.com" grambadger@juno.com ingram_jd
Sat Oct 9, 2010 10:54 pm (PDT)
revel in the candy
the children
the parties
the costumes
have fun, give death the day off
poke a little fun at him
Notice the abundant harvest, thankful there is enough to throw about, to give away.
Honor the day of the dead, all souls, samhain, sauin, what ever you like.
If this is the big day for Mars and Hershey, why shouldn't it be?
Celebrate the vale of tears, vail the veil by poking some fun at it.
This is our joyous religion
enjoy!
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- 14.
-
(no subject)
Posted by: "susanc06@yahoo.com" susanc06@yahoo.com susanc06
Sat Oct 9, 2010 7:46 pm (PDT)
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