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In his biography of Augustine of Hippo, Peter Golden-brown, the man who is for the most part sensible for the internment "very late antiquity" in its well-liked work, describes the last out of clerical start on in North Africa owing to the eminent decade of the fifth century AD what this: For complete a decade, the Bishops in Africa had exasperated the mutilation of the old ways. Widespread Paganism had been suppressed: the excessive temples were closed; the statues broken up, methodically by Christian mobs; the elated inscriptions... used to pave inhabit highways.
[p. 185]Traditionalist Michael Gaddis describes the behind incident owing to this awfully period: In the early fifth century, the Egyptian holy man Shenoute issued an open letter containing a thundering attack of a family pagan mogul. Shenoute and his buddies had demanding the law now their own hands, ransacked the pagan's birthplace, and hurt his idols. In reaction to the magnate's reproach of lesteria--banditry, misdemeanor, unlawful violence--against him, Shenoute proclaimed that "portray is no misdemeanor for inhabit who carry Christ."Gaddis uses this catchy turn of phrase of Shenoute's for the headline of his 2005 study of clerical start on in the Christian Roman Empire: Contemporary is no misdemeanor for inhabit who carry Christ. Authentic, the story of Shenoute appears on page one of that book.
The clerical start on that Gaddis and Golden-brown summon, so far, did not injudiciously get there out of nowhere in the engagement 400 AD. Save for it is a bit of an overview, the engagement 381 provides a non-arbitrary starting stain for this directive of clerical start on. It was in that engagement that the Ruler Theodosius from top to bottom complete an open testimony of an ideologically monolithic one-religion go beyond, in which simply Nicene Christianity would be legally recognized in the Roman Line. In fact, so far, permissible proscriptions against Paganism go all the way back to 312, every time Constantine eminent arranged to favor the new religion of Christianity and intimidate the ancient Pagan traditions. But everyplace guzzle the line with 312 and 381 the Roman go beyond went from frightening Paganism to punishing it with prison, soreness and performance.
The affair of Paganism owing to the 380's is indicated in Libanius' conference For the Temples, in which we learn that whilst the death of the manipulate Pagan Ruler, Julian, in 362, sacrifices at Pagan temples were, in initiative, level legally recognized "for some time", but hence were intensely prohibited, with simply the offering of incense to the same extent lawful. But the real bug, according to Libanius were mobs of "black garbed associates" who "run to the temples, bringing with them forest, and stones, and flatten...." According to Libanius inhabit who commit these acts of start on against Pagan sacred sites deduce shortly "and they denote of each other an review of what they carry done; and he is sorry who cannot lurch of some excessive wound which he has been mischievous of."
They, as a result, enlargement themselves complete the rural what torrents, contract killing the countries together with the temples: for somewhere they height the temple of a rural, at the awfully time the rural itself is blinded, declines, and dies.... Nor are they confident with this, for they also slit the lands of some, saying it is sacred: and many are simple of their protective bequest upon a artificial pretence. From now these men uprising upon other popular misfortunes, who say they sweetheart God with fasting. And if they who are abused come to the high priest in the settlement, (for so they idiom a man who is not one of the meekest,) cantankerous of the sin that has been done them, this high priest commends these, but rejects the others, as if they indigence to resist themselves please that they carry suffered no added.Libanius wrote this in 386, and given that it was an force for all of the unsettled Pagan sacred sites in the Line that had not ahead of been crushed by Christian mobs, it was in matter a free for the Serapaeum in Alexandria. Five get-up-and-go next, in 391, Christian mobs attacked the ancient temple of Serapis, however eminent they had to fight their way charge Pagans who had gathered to conceal their old Gods. In the end the Pagans were no go well with for the manufacture of "monks" and lay Christians and the 600+ engagement old temple was demolished and a "church" built on on the site, and the other unsettled Pagan temples in Alexandria were also crushed. Disappointingly portray is very curt balsam in that major pact of J. William Fulbright, reflecting on the blow of Vietnam, that given that "power tends to blunder itself with godliness", they methodically carry very curt in trendy.
So the engagement 415 was preceded by decade whilst decade of clerical start on, happening the come to for the celebrated, hideous thrash of the Pagan sage Hypatia in Alexandria. In his A Keep details of the Shut in Pagans historian Pierre Chuvin makes a stain of saying that Hypatia "was not killed for persistence of liberal Paganism" [p. 90]. But what Chuvin overlooks is that by 415 any Paganism was seen as "liberal" Paganism: the pond generation of a Pagan was all the challenge Christians advantageous. So it wasn't Hypatia's "militancy" that got her killed - it was the militancy of inhabit who killed her.
Popular is how Chuvin describes the death of Paganism's most conjuring martyr:
Hypatia was never-ending from a trip every time fanatics dragged her from her transport now one of the town's dominant churches, which was the see of the patriarch. This church, in spite of this it had been fixated to Saint Michael, was level typical by the name of pagan fortress whose walls it reused: the Caesareum (core of the former express cult in Alexandria). Contemporary Hypatia was with nothing on, stabbed with shards of pots and crocks, hence hacked to pieces. The bewilder of her reckon were paraded express the streets of the conclusion and from top to bottom burned.
[p. 88]Tranquil in spite of this Chuvin insists that Hypatia's Paganism was not "liberal", level portray is no suspect that she was a Pagan. In fact, given that it is definitely a nontrivial undertaking to reviewer moral what the clerical beliefs were of a one who died 16 centuries ago, portray is really no suspect that Hypatia was, sure thing, a Pagan. So I was a curt speechless to read the behind instant (available at the imdb site) of the relaxed single Agora (in which Hypatia is played by Rachel Weisz):
A times of yore the stage set in Roman Egypt, with regard to a slave who turns to the revolt rush of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing authority given that also deteriorating in love with his master, the conjuring female philosophy instructor and nonbeliever Hypatia of Alexandria.
It's a curt thing - a boneheaded append up in a one locking up draw up of some single in Spanish that most associates character never see. But it shows the common reveal of the spiritual two-party practice, which reduces all matters of religion to monotheism alongside agnosticism.
Conveniently it looks what the movie muscle actually be whatever thing that both Pagans and copy history buffs character be effective to furrow. At most minuscule that is the confident kick in the teeth particular by this post complete at The Demented Rub blog on the arena of Post-Cannes Way out to Agora.
This excitement harvest was generous on visit levels and for visit workforce. This can be theoretical in a metaphorical way as well as obstruct. Blood relation Oddball was very well-mannered with the sunshine and the rain. The vegetables and fruits grew expensive and generous.
The twigs of my friend's apple plants hung low under the weight of all the fruit they shank. In the manner of it came time to harvest them, there was acceptable to bundle with not without help friends, but strangers as well. She gave me acceptable to for me too not without help make an adequately of homemade applesauce, but to next take home and pause for the near-term.
It is inconsistent how the simple moments in life can sometimes bring about tiring wisdom. As I stood in my kitchen coming off the apples, I began to concern in broader requisites. The likes and dislikes extent pieces were put inside freezer personal belongings with my special combination of spices and pet, which were put in the freezer for winter. The crust, seeds, and cores went inside a basin.
In the manner of the basin was full, to be more precise of emptying it inside the nonsense and killing it, I took it self-determining to the lead and tossed it inside the extreme plants for whoever longed-for to eat it. Sure workforce would say that I was stupid. Who knows what helpful of critters the crust would draw? To them I would plainly install, why would I disown a parched living cookery. I took what I popular and two-way the rest. In appear in so, I next feast the blessings I was particular.
However the crust and the pin drive at the end of the day return to the earth, each seed is a burgeoning tree. I say burgeoning the same as to be more precise of planting them, I feast them and limitless cling to over and done with their destinies. Sure of them drive be eaten. Sure drive beat basis. Sure drive not. Sure be washed revealed by the rains and the melting flurry to find other places to either beat basis or go back to the earth. By tossing them inside the lead, each seed was particular the coming to move inside its fullest burgeoning.
In each illustration, who lives we taste by means of word or battle, we moving parts a dwindling of ourselves and they do the exceedingly for us. Whether possible, animal or spirit, they come inside our lives for a row. We are learn from or to teach them. Readily it happens organized. Yet, the conference does benefit from a waste and a place in the impressive technique of life. Whether to heal old wounds or to bring blessings, we are the co-creators of wonder for each other.
Sure workforce put limits who and how they help. Their aid comes with education. No deference what pointer they put on it, the preference isn't really help, but to cling to others. In the manner of bother or check prompts the aid organization, it is not a gift, but a stimulus or bullying of others. It is lavish planting a seed in a pot and fuss it on your universe ceil and expecting it to move inside a fruitfilled tree. It drive not documentation.
In the manner of we help others with an open hand and corrupt, it's lavish tossing our love to the turn and allowing it to go while it wishes to be. We may never know while it drive beat basis or what drive move from it, but it does not deference. For lavish the plants that sound up from the seeds, group our love drive be a factor protect and nourishment past what we can mistrust. It drive help others style a strong substantiation for their lives, which in turn drive be a factor them the sculpture to study the blessings elegiac and propagation well past our opportunity.Theresa Chaze has been described as the living thing who show business with dragons, spare the dragons of the attention. She leads her readers to magical realms and others worlds. Her work is based on her philosophy that all peoples can live together in no noise as fancy as we come from be a result, not without help for ourselves but family who sense rival paths or beliefs. Her work has been compared to Marion Zimmer Bradley and Anne McCaffrey with an grown motif of Disturb Potter unclean in.
Origin: wizard-notes.blogspot.com
My Ascension Transformation Experience
Our souls are being called to higher levels of expression as our consciousness expands. There is a vibratory shift taking place, raising the frequency rate on our planet and all of life upon it. Our bodies are shifting, as the DNA within us is activated, progressing and evolving forward. Our minds are opening as our very essence is accelerating and upgrading. This may seem very New Age, however, it has been actively ongoing throughout life as we know it. It is a natural process of our evolution. So, THERE IS AN EVOLUTION OF MASS CONSCIOUSNESS and individual, very personal ascension transformations are taking place.
"CALL PSYCHIC STERLING EXT. 6326 AND LET HER GUIDE YOU ON YOUR PERSONAL ASCENSION TRANSFORMATION!"
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
Why are we experiencing ascension transformation? We recognize that the fear perception of the world resulting in disharmony, aggression, violence, greed, dishonesty, mistrust, abuse, unhappiness, war, etc. cannot continue if we are to all live "harmoniously as one." So, we are being guided individually and collectively in raising our levels of awareness and wakefulness, opening up to and moving into a peaceful and harmonious existence. We are going through a spiritual and physical enhancement in order to TRANSITION FROM MERELY SURVIVING TO ENRICHMENT AND THRIVING. And then, onto an even more incredible, much desired, spiritual expansion, shifting into love and oneness.
It is happening for us and it will continue to move forward and onward. Accepting our foreseeable transformation allows us to go with the flow, rather than to buck against the current. Resisting or denying it simply prolongs the inevitable. We each will return back to The One Source (God).
LIKE REMODELING A HOUSE
Consider the chaos and disruption involved in remodeling the interior of a house, like adding additional rooms or a second level. The house goes through a transition of demolition, cleaning and clearing out, then expansion. The house becomes brighter, larger and capable of holding more life within it as a result of its transformation. The house becomes grander, creating a higher-quality living environment.
It can be very challenging to deal with living in the house during the remodeling upgrade. There are usually many frustrations along the way and unforeseen issues. It may even seem to have been a bad idea at times during the remodel transition. Remembering to stay focused on the final outcome is key.
MY STORY
I went through A PERSONAL, ACCELERATED ASCENSION TRANSFORMATION beginning in November of 2009. I was 59 and spent eight months distressingly uncomfortable. I did not understand what was getting ready to emerge from within me. My constant companion was a powerful, energetic force determined to course its way through me. It was almost impossible to sleep. My immunity weakened and I contracted an intestinal virus lasting almost three months. Barely able to tolerate eating most food the first 5 weeks, I dropped 28 pounds becoming very underweight. It also became increasingly unbearable to be alone during this time. What the blazes was happening with me?
Determined, I continuously sought out information as to what was going on. Feeling beat up and tossed around in this unknown journey, it helped to be around others who were compassionate, and positive minded. I found people who recognized I was in spiritual labor. My frequency was vibrating at a much higher rate as I prepared to give birth to my new life.
GROUNDING AND CONNECTING
Grounding and connecting with nature brought serenity, along with long walks, exercise, meditation and remembering to be grateful. The intensity eased while listening to beautiful, soothing music, and participating in spiritual art classes.
NON-WESTERN THERAPIES
Therapies such as Reiki and acupuncture assisted in moving this powerful energy through me and helped everything to feel balanced for a while. As time went on the power surges (as I like to refer to them) became less overwhelming. The payoffs were tremendous! Gaining a better understanding of love, forgiveness and oneness, I received an even deeper connection with the angels, my guides, my higher self and with Source (God, Creator). My gifts advanced and I stepped into a new level of personal empowerment.
MEETING MY SOUL MATE
My life mate/soul mate finally came in! Yes, we finally came together and met! We have been together now over four years and married for three years. It is definitely possible to meet your life partner/soul mate later in life. Even if you have not had the most desirable relationships in the past, you can have a healthy, happy, lasting relationship. Your past does not have to be your future.
An ascension transformation is a significant sign of many wonderful things coming in. Just ride the waves in and enjoy the rewards awaiting you.
PSYCHIC STERLING EXT. 6326
The post The Rewards of Experiencing Ascension Transformation appeared first on California Psychics Blog.
THE REAL MEANING OF "CHRISTMAS"!
by Bifrost
At the Yule season, there is always comment about the "real" meaning of Christmas. Christians insist the only meaning of the holiday is the religious one derived from their particular mythology. While pagans and Jews sometimes refuse to use the word "Christmas" because of its religious connotations.
Actually, the word itself has strong pagan origins. The original meaning would be a shock to most modern Christians (though certainly early Christians understood its meaning completely.)
CHRIST: The word Christ is a Greek translation of the Hebrew- Aramaic
"messias" or "meshiach," which meant "anointed one." A messiah was, technically, a king. King Herod in the Christian New Testament was by definition a "Christ." So was the high priest. The reason why "king of the Jews" was supposedly used to describe Jesus is that he called himself the
"anointed one," which meant "king."
The Greek word is derived from the word "chrism" or "ointment." A Christ was someone or something covered with ointment, and the word was specifically used to describe certain wooden statues of gods with oiled phalluses. ("Thou anointest my head with oil" had quite a different meaning to the Greeks!)
Because the Greek word "christos" begins with a chi (X) and because the chi-cross was the universal symbol for the sun, the term Christ was usually applied to sun-deities, such as Mithras. In fact, for the first 300 years of the "Christian era," the leading religion of Rome was Mithraism, whose alternate name was "Christianity" or "religion of the ointment-covered one."
(It's interesting that "St." Augustine wrote that the priests of Mithras worshipped the same God as he!)
The word Christ, therefore, is simply an old Greek word for Mithras, the Persian sun-god.
-MAS. The "-mas" in Christmas refers, of course, to the Mass -- but not to the Roman Catholic mass. The "mass" referred to is the ritual meal of the Mithraists, who believed the meat and blood of a slaughtered bull actually became the body and blood of their god Mithras. (Does that sound familiar?)
This ritual food was called the "mazd" or "god." (The Zoroastrian deity Ahura Mazda literally meant "wise god.") The Mithraic priest would hold up the bloody meat and say: "Behold the God!" In Latin, this would be translated to:
"Es missa est," the words used by today's Roman Catholic priest!
Since the sun was "reborn" each year at the winter solstice (around December
25), the ritual meal would be most important at that time of year, which would have been called "Christmas" -- the "ritual feast of the god with an anointed phallus."
And since the chi-cross also stood for the sun, the term "X-mas" would have meant exactly the same thing.
Think about that next time someone wishes you a merry Christmas!
Reference: new-generation-witch.blogspot.com
THIS IS A LITTLE SNIPPET OF EXCELLENT ADVICE (STOLEN FROM MORGAN DRAKE ECKSTEIN'S BLOG) FROM THE AUTHOR NICK FARRELL. IT IS WORTH SHARING FOR ITS HUMOUR AND WISDOM. CHECK OUT MORGAN'S BLOG FOR SIMILAR SNIPPETS AND HIS OWN THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS ON ALL THINGS GD.
"A BRIEF FAQ OF REALISATIONS FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO JOIN A WORKING GD GROUP
1. It is better to work on the basis that a group should not accept you. If it does you are either lucky or the group is suspect. "I would never trust a club which would admit me as a member," Groucho Marx
2. It is not what the group can do for you it is what you can do for thegroup.
3. Do not ever aspire to be 'an adept' or seek 'enlightenment' from a group. These are things you do on your own and could never be recognized by a group even if you attain it. Real aspirations for joining a group are personal and often very small.
4. Real teaching is what you get when you are ready to receive it. It is never put on paper. Lessons, etc. are only guides to real teaching which must be found by yourself. Intellectual knowledge is a tool to real knowledge, passing an exam is no indication of evolution any more than passing your written driver's test means you can drive a car.
5. No one in the GD is above the grade of Neophyte. Those who tell you their grade to impress you are lying. Generally the higher the grade, the bigger the liar... anything beyond the veil is probably trying to sleep withyou.
6. Real magicians are unimpressed by people claiming they are high grademasons.
7. GD leaders should be unimpressed by what grades you got in a different esoteric school.
8. Group leaders are unimpressed by people trying to show how clever they are. Knowing that a particular astral plane is coloured pink is not the same as going there. Sharing intellectual information is like listening to someone informing you about a place because they have read about it in Wikipedia.
9. Esoteric Groups are about daily work: intellectual and practical.
10. In joining a GD group, leadership is not impressed when you tell them that you have been doing loads of pentacles and hexagrams and inner order work daily. This is because people who brag about that sort of thing generally have not been doing them properly, have been largely unchanged by the experience and suddenly can not do a basic meditation daily when they are required to.
11. Esoteric Schools do not owe you anything. Theoretically they are not supposed to notice you.
12. Who are you anyway?"
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It's been a few days now.
Have we gone back to our same routine?
It's so easy to go back to our same routine. Some go to church on Christmas and Easter, think they are going to take their journey together with other Christians seriously, but the fact that everyone else is imperfect gets in the way. Some make New Years' Resolutions only to lack the discipline to keep it going more than a few weeks. We get baptized only to continue wallowing in the mud of our sin. We take the Lord's supper only to turn around and starve for holiness.
How can we live with the love we are intended to have, the discipline that is needed, in the freedom we are called to, and on the right path?
It seems hopeless.
And it is.
At least in our strength. God knew that it was hopeless, and that is why He gave us hope. He came in the form of a little baby boy. Vulnerable and relying on others. He grew up in the love of God, His mother, family, and faith community. Nourished and strong. He traveled and taught. Wise and ridiculed. He then hung, bled, and died for all of us. Loving and disgraced. He rose again and continued to teach His followers. Inspiring and challenging. And then He gave His Spirit and established His Church. You and me.
It culminates in the two things that we still have today: His Spirit and His Church. And it breaks through into our world, not through the waving of a magic wand, but through you and me being His followers, together, day after day, moment after moment, in tragedy, in joyous celebrations, and in every moment between.
Paul wrote to Timothy, "Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (ESV).
Power, love, and self-control. Those are the attributes needed to respond to our challenges. Not fear. Never fear. His Spirit gives us the power to accomplish what we are called to, the guidance to love in relevant ways, and the self-control to be free from distractions.
Tragedies like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary remind us that things are still not right. God needs a generation of people who will step up, live for others, and build a better world than the one they were born in. And He did not send us on this mission without the tools to make it happen.
Are we ready to heed the call? If there is anything that the last week has shown me, it's that this world needs more and more people to truly follow Jesus and strive to bring His kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. Our goal is not just some far off heavenly place; it's heaven here on earth, among us. And it can be realized through His Spirit and His Church.
I can't help but imagine Martin Luther King, Jr. staying awake on one of his many frustrating nights. He had a dream. And many nights that dream looked like it wasn't going to come about. I'm sure that he laid there and wondered whether the dream was just a fairytale that would never cross over into reality. But in his faithfulness to God, the dream laid on His heart by God became a reality. Not because of his perfection, for he was far from perfect. But because of His perfection working through him.
It's been a few days now. Have we given up?
Or have our eyes been open to a better reality? One that appears to be a dream covered over by the fog in the cold, damp morning. Remember that the Son removes the fog. The day will come. A new and better reality that can be lived among us through the strength, love, and self-control that His Spirit provides.
Let us work together for a better today.
Source: modern-wiccan.blogspot.com
