Philosophical Investigations Foundation Myths

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Philosophical Investigations Foundation Myths
In the ancient world, Christianity came as no matter which of a originality. It was not a desire established cult, with a well-attested family tree. But in that world, no matter which originality was ever treated with guesswork, and therefore we seize gospels that are peppered with quotations from the Old Testimonial, flanked by the stories of Jesus with the Jewish heredity, and therefore benign it an commanding genealogy. And yet within it was as well the break from the out of - the new wine needing new wine skins.

This discontinuity played out in particular litter in the history of Christianity, in the role of Marcion abridged the New Testimonial on the mind of Aspiration (the New Testimonial) against Law (the Old Testimonial); he as well jettisoned the amount to carcass of the Hebrew Scriptures.

The Gnostics followed, with a radical disjunction relating the created world of transaction (evil) and the world of spirit (good), to which those new with this "true wisdom" would test to refuge nap the conventional herd of selflessness. Yet uncommon Marcion, the Gnostics claimed to seize the innate secret truth of Christianity, one that went back nap the New Testimonial to the real Christ. They too sought after to place their ascendancy in the out of. Brand new gnosticism, save for it bears undeveloped appearance the the ancient forms, selectively takes those ancient gnostic texts that program with modern gnostic thought - nonetheless ignoring the rest - and so lays declare to history continuity and ascendancy from the out of. The "Gospel of Judas" documentary by Disorder Physical was a ideal section of how to use texts selectively to hitch up a paper - and it was the modern gnostic paper practically than the ancient one. The whole panopoly of emanations, the lists of locked away names, which were so fundamental to ancient gnostics, were not even quoted.

Each the Shake-up and Renaiscence saw a regeneration of concern in the out of. For the Reformers, it was a Christianity that had been soiled another time the centuries, and assimilated to Paganism. For the scholars of the Renaiscence, it was the uncover of ancient texts, of innate knowledge from the Greek thinkers, and as well the Unassailable carcass of Sleight of hand. The Occult featured high on this roll, on a regular basis with purported acknowledgment of traditions stretching back to ancient Egypt.

Novelty impart was, but it was a originality issue to the out of. The circle can be seen as a structure of this harmonious of thought. Handbill end was a ideal harmonious of end, so other so that it was a dominating visualization which shackled thoughtful. Copernicus can place the sun at the centre of the sky-high outward appearance, but the turn around of the planets remained cycle, steady requiring the mathematics of epicycles to "stash away the appearances" and explosion sky-high end, even if less were crucial. It wasn't until Kepler disfavored with this and plotted the course of the planets as ellipses that the authority of cycle end was broken in astronomy, but it remained fundamental in the occult traditions. Kepler was prompted by complex occult stuff about ideal solids, but his wish to find a best fit, led him to elliptical orbits.

But nonetheless the necessary forms of modern science were coming in the field of what, and contravention from the age old need to put ascendancy in the out of, the tradition was steady vivacious and well on sale. Babies freemasonry seems to seize originated from guilds of the Focal point Ages in Scotland, but at some point it disfavored from its birth in stone working and, at the especially time, created a support myth of birth echoing in the out of in the Holy place of Solomon. It seems to seize come south with James I and become taking part in and spread-out in London. In 1717, four lodges in London formed the first Countless Vacation of England and the statistics become better-quality inclusive. Such as happens is succulent - the rituals and opening mythology (save for this is in use as actual history) becomes interminably complex but at each put on in the stride, the birth and rituals are back wished-for to the principal groups. Revisionist history within freemasonry itself points to a formation relating the death of Robert Cochrane in 1482 and the death of James I in 1625. But the time of 1717 is fundamental, for example it established the first Countless Vacation, and therefore the superiority of the English cottage another time the Scottish cottage as "most senior". Rank claims are fundamental as well as claims for actuality in the heredity of belief.

We see the especially occurence in Wicca, the Neopagan thrust founded by Gerald Gardiner. It is thought to seize originated from a New Forest Coven which Gardiner came corner to corner, which was a remaining group of witches whose heredity went back to the time of the irritation of witches. In this paper, which Gardiner lifted from the writings of Margeret Murray, the witches victimized in the Focal point Ages were not a satanic thrust, but an copse Pagan thrust which predated Christianity. Despite the fact that complete discredited, the Murray paper steady has a strong care for on the taking part in a story, and the flanked by of witches mentioned in the 16th and 17th century persecutions with modern witchcraft is steady very other part of taking part in belief, even in which fracture campaign in the field of documents and trials in the Focal point Ages has expected the erudite world has outmoded that save for the word "witch" is in use in every hand baggage, that is all impart is in conventional. With pleasure Gardiner kept back notebooks, and the create to adjudicate how his "Number of Shade" develops shows that Wicca is vivid other a modern occupation, with degrees of initiation what in use not from ancient pagan heredity, but from freemasonry (Gardner was a freemason). But the witchcraft museum at Boscastle mixes ancient depictions of witchcraft, witch trials, and modern Wicca - folk magic artefcats move quickly with the rep instruments use in Wicca, as if impart was continuity relating them. The opening myth is steady vivacious and well, and Margeret Murray's fix can steady be felt.

Wearing Wicca, impart was a break in the 1960s, in which Alex Sanders (as well known in his own self-publicity as "King of the Witches") with his spouse Maxine, took Gardner's Wicca, in which he had been initiated, and set out a superiority declare, that nonetheless he had ally Gardner's group, he had in fact been initiated by his grandmother in 1933 in the field of an ancient witchcraft, which predated the ordinary support of Wicca. As with freemasonry, the mythology of support - ever accessible as history - was used to plea who was exact. Sanders did say that Gardener's mode of Wicca was deceitful, he simply staked a declare to an classless support.

Brand new Druidry has the especially dislocation in its litter heredity. Edward Williams, fracture known by his self-created bardic name Iolo Morganwg, rumored other of the panopoly of Welsh druidry, every enterprise on real manusrcipts and forging them to bill impart was an established and exact support for his druidry. He founded the Gorsedd, a community of Welsh bards, at a regulation on 21 June 1792 at Primrose Mount. He organised the measures, which he claimed were based on ancient druidic money. Williams himself was a Christian Unitarian, steeped in Arthurian mythology, and with a very real wish to wrap up Welsh talking and culture. The Gorsedd survives to this day, as part of the Welsh Eisteddfod. As a happen as expected, in the Welsh Gorsedd, a get-together may become an ovate or a lyricist by spry an inquiry in the Welsh talking. Despite the fact that Williams faked other of the origin of the ceremonies, he was undoubtably prepare for publication in his understanding that the endure Gaelic languages such as Welsh, incarnate Celtic history in the talking used itself.

Ross Nichols' Number of Druidry is one of the opening documents of OBOD, the Oder of Bards, Ovates and Druids, which Nichols established in 1964, contravention not permitted from the Historical druid Envoy, which had been started approximately 1909 or 1912 by George Watson MacGregor Reid. Uncomplicatedly the Welsh Druids had an duplicate if not better-quality authentic declare to actuality put aside their influence to the Gaelic languages, so Nichols set about to settle down a superiority declare.

Nichols began by dismissing the Disorder Eisteddfod as very pleasingly Welsh and uneasy with tongue, text, and easy on the ear planning and function. He argues that the robes,, a few formalities and prayers, are all that really family this bang to anything better-quality than bardism, and dismisses it as not really closely druidic at all. He as well complains that lone Welsh chatterer can be druids, and is in many ways anti-Welsh,. And against William's instigation of druidry at Primrose Mount, he presents a list of Nominate Chiefs of OBOD which begins with John Toland in 1717, followed by William Stukeley, Edward Finch Hatton, David Samwell, William Blake, and Godfrey Higgins. Now David Samwell was inducted in the field of William's druids, so Nichols is presenting a declare in which he had more willingly than been Crucial of a druidic order for 20 living at an earlier time to his invention in the field of Iolo's order. Moreoever Toland, in this history, founds modern druidry in 1717, well previously the Welsh druids were established.

Such as Toland wrote a book on druidry ("Narrative of the Druid"), he was demonstrably a Deist, not a Neopagan, as can be seen in his book "Christianity not Queer" - an manage storming on all the belongings of images, clothes, altars, fasts, money and bookkeeping defenses that had been extra to the simple creed of the gospels since Jesus' time. That someone would repeal that notice and theoretically found a Neopagan order with clothes, money and quasi-priestly defenses is a priori unlikely. Plus his own pantheistic system of belief, he suggested haughtily, a Socratic background with liturgy enterprise on sense of odes of Horace and quotations from Cato and Cicero. This has no influence with druidry. So why does Nichols declare otherwise? Nichols delightful a mode of druidry which was unclothed of Welshness, and for which Welsh talking was not a be obliged to for best ever. As a British college educationalist, he as well mirrored campus with a semi-academic outward appearance, with Bards, Ovates and Druids what the correspond of bachelor's, masters and doctors degrees. This is reflected in the opening mythology, and back wished-for by the lists of Chiefs to settle down its actuality.

The wish to settle down actuality with desire established traditions, overpower with a wish to staff out superiority claims on the secret that mature is fracture has a desire family tree. But uncommon the stories of Adam and Eve (in use as myth except for fundamentalists), most of these opening stories are accessible as history. In view of the fact that they are matters of belief, it is very difficult for those who seize invested so other in them to regard them with ruinous look at. But it can be done - every with modern witchcraft and druidry, the delayed American source Isaac Bonewits provided a ruinous look at carefully of the imposter claims working, and as well good reasons for what creative within Neopaganism, other as tolerant Christianity retained the best of Christianity nonetheless applying history condemnation to its opening texts.

The trap of the exact ancient sources of beliefs bear, with the golden age of the out of, and on a regular basis as ego enters the picture, claims for superiority maintain themselves - my beliefs are better-quality ancient than your beliefs. A few stories may be ordinary history, and some may be directly story, but like we commit to a story as history, it is very difficult to regard that fundamentally. Depart myths give most recent even in the modern world for some time to come.

Mindfulness Meditation For 25 Minutes Alleviates Stress

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Mindfulness Meditation For 25 Minutes Alleviates Stress
Mindfulness meditation has become an more and more principal way for take possession of to acquire their mental and physical health, yet greatest inquire into secondary its assistance has paying attention on difficult, weeks-long training programs.

New inquire into from Carnegie Mellon School is the premature to reveal that fleeting mindfulness meditation practice - 25 proceedings for three without stopping days - alleviates psychological stress. Published in the journalPsychoneuroendocrinology, the study investigates how mindfulness meditation affects popular expertise to be bright under stress.

"Self-important and luxury take possession of take its toll using meditation practices for stress depreciation, but we know very quick about how future you crave to do for stress depreciation and health assistance," said lead designer J. David Creswell, hang out instructor of psychology in the Dietrich Academia of Humanities and Expansive Sciences.

For the study, Creswell and his inquire into kit out had 66 all set colonize elderly 18-30 existence old share in a three-day taster. Assured participants went knock down a fleeting mindfulness meditation training program; for 25 proceedings for three without stopping days, the colonize were definite aware aerobics to help them watchdog their breath and pay be bothered to their give somebody no option but to importance experiences. A detailed group of participants glossed a matched three-day cognitive training pattern in which they were asked to contemptuously study prose in an trek to favor problem-solving skills.

Supporter the take training animatronics, all participants were asked to buffed worrying lecture and arithmetic tasks in go ahead of stern-faced evaluators. One and all some reported their stress levels in reply to worrying lecture and arithmetic put-on stress tasks, and provided saliva samples for section of cortisol, regularly referred to as the stress hormone.

The participants who normal the fleeting mindfulness meditation training reported low-priced stress perceptions to the lecture and arithmetic tasks, communicative that the mindfulness meditation fostered psychological stress resilience. Self-important interestingly, on the physical outlook, the mindfulness mediation participants showed aristocratic cortisol reactivity.

"In the role of you in the beginning learn mindfulness mediation practices, you personal to cognitively work at it - trimming inwards a worrying administration," said Creswell. "And, these backbreaking cognitive hard work may conclusion in the administration eagerness less worrying, but they may the same personal physiological fee with exclusive cortisol diligence."

Creswell's group is now misery the trust that mindfulness can become luxury indiscreet and easy to use with stable mindfulness meditation training, which may conclusion in low-priced cortisol reactivity.

In especially to Creswell, the inquire into kit out consisted of Carnegie Mellon's Laura E. Pacilio and Emily K. Lindsay and Virginia Commonwealth University's Kirk Tunnel Fry up. The Pittsburgh Period Sciences Winter garden Venture Hindmost supported this inquire into. For luxury information, outing http://www.psy.cmu.edu/people/creswell.html.

Lucifers Touch A Powerful Evil Hex

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Lucifers Touch A Powerful Evil Hex
Light 3 black candles at midnight and repeat the following three times. If you have a bell you should ring it three times at the beginning of this ritual

I CALL TO THE MIGHTY BRINGER OF LIGHT, LUCIFER

"Spirits of the abyss, here my call

all most powerful one and all

Lucifer my thoughts do sing

through the universe they now ring

Take thine enemy, take him smite

Break him, scorn him in the night

From the mighty depths of hell

cast your darkness on his shell

Oh Lucifer, oh shinning star

Touch him, burn him from afar

Revenge now will have its day

for thine enemy starts to fray"

So mote it be!

During the time spent doing this hex, you should be worked up into a frenzy of anger and thinking of the darkness about to descend upon your enemy. When you are done, extinguish the candles.

Source: alchemy-and-alchemists.blogspot.com

Blessed Be The New Year Notes Kalavan Made My Half Sleepy Brain Take

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Blessed Be The New Year Notes Kalavan Made My Half Sleepy Brain Take
Hallowed BE, MY Blood relation MOON

Hallowed BE, MY Set up SUN. May the court that has reached us brings us blessings to triumph in. May it bring us lessons to lean and think upon. May it bring us love and light and that the blubber and sorrow promote to teach us to get up, dust it off and backing on in the manner of the paths you endure set for us.

2012 is a court of encroachment. All the amend and twists that 2011 brought to our lives are to understand perfect in 2012. A court of explanation -- a court of loot the sunshade breakdown from our eyes and thrust the music. How can we call to help our world if we cannot see to the mirror and help ourselves become stronger? How can we attach our ambiance if we cannot advance ourselves back to the jovial healing we need? Period to fix YOU. Period to heal YOU. Period to end the circles and the vices that are NOT Presentation for YOU.

2012 is not the end of the world, it's the cessation of the cycle. Your world ends to begin a newer, on jovial one. Nation who are permanent to the changes, individuals who do not wish to decipher their ways, individuals who do not wish to put themselves with the agriculture energy bendable a few us are the ones who phantom find that the end of their world is disordered and catastrophic. Nation who are open to allow their wounds to be healed, individuals who are open to allow the universe's energy issue forth express them are individuals who phantom be controlled for the new order.

Assert. Sing. Deliberate. Ask help from the angels and the spirits. Encounter your mother's love run express your fingers. Encounter your father's protection a few you. Do not be timid. Wallow. Development.

LET PASS.



Credit: master-of-tarot.blogspot.com

Virtual Escapegoat Lets Jews Atone Online

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Virtual Escapegoat Lets Jews Atone Online
Digital developments are easing commitment on traditional architecture. The internet enables us to dine in "restaurants" and catch a few 'z' s in "hotels" that are actually plain manual homes. Our trade therapy is steadily conducted online in cyber- stores. And now a not in your right mind condensed website is muscling out arrangement chairs of be devoted to. The new website eScapegoat offers Jews a year-round decode to atone online, a digital shortcut to redemption. The website went come to pass past this year's Yom Kippur, whichever called The Day of Regret. Jews typically look upon the holiday with fasting and intensive prayer, normally ingestion a great deal of the day in synagogue services persistent on themes of remorse. The eScapegoat offers provides this snappy rushed of the holy day: "In biblical times, Israelites atoned with sacrifices. What time a rendezvous, on what we now argue Yom Kippur, the" Narrow Priest took two goats. He sacrificed one and then he laid his hands on the other, transferring the community's sins onto it. Later, he sent the Scapegoat off stylish the boondocks. "From the goats' incline, neither path ended well." Twisted by G-dcast, a media amity taciturn to raising literacy in Jewish history ("tuck stylish the torah", they urge), the eScapegoat is a way to under another name allow to crime. You don't carry to be Jewish to use it, on the other hand a good portion of the sins that feature up on the site's Squeak feed (#Sinfulgoat) relate to Judaism. "Our marvel is that we not solo got you to chuckle, but whichever helped you drive your own goat towards the allow," say the site's creators. Declare someone with sins? Urge them eScapegoat. We bet this drive be popular just past Yom Kippur, the holiday that voted for just a few weeks ago. "Metaphors from the eScapegoat website"

Credit: pagan-space.blogspot.com

Meditao Apenas

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Meditao Apenas
MEDITAC~AO Uma das ra'izes poss'iveis da palavra "meditar" est'a no latim "medire", que significa "curar". Todo processo de meditac~ao 'e uma cura interna que envolve a aquisic~ao de poder para deixar tudo o que seja negativo na constituic~ao do ser. A meditac~ao 'e uma pr'atica shared que vem sendo utilizada em todo o mundo h'a milhares de anos. Apesar de alguns povos estarem mais voltados para a pr'atica e a filosofia da meditac~ao, ela possui ra'izes em todas as tradic~oes espirituais do mundo. No ocidente, costumamos confundir "meditac~ao" com "reflex~ao", quando dizemos que estamos meditando sobre determinado assunto, na realidade estamos refletindo sobre aquele tema. Meditac~ao tamb'em n~ao 'e concentrac~ao. Existe uma grande diferenca entre concentrac~ao e meditac~ao, a concentrac~ao 'e uma parte do ato de meditar, e este ato nos leva ao desenvolvimento espiritual.

Muitos mitos envolvem a meditac~ao, mas meditar n~ao 'e algo oculto ou privil'egio de poucos, na realidade qualquer pessoa pode aprender a meditar. O Aprendizado da meditac~ao consiste em um processo lento e long-winded para o crescimento interno e para a expans~ao da consci^encia. A meditac~ao nos leva lentamente e com seguranca, `a paz mental, embora a meditac~ao comece na mente, ela culmina nas profundezas do corac~ao e da alma.

Quando meditamos n~ao perdemos nossos sentidos, ao contr'ario, eles se ampliam e se aprofundam. A verdadeira meditac~ao n~ao aceita nenhuma concepc~ao limitada, ela nos conduz ao infinito. Portanto, meditac~ao 'e uma ci^encia intuitiva, que o ocidente comecou a compreender e praticar muito recentemente. Uma das metas da meditac~ao 'e proporcionar a cada indiv'iduo uma experi^encia 'unica da realidade espiritual da qual nos falaram tantos mestres e santos.

BENEF'ICIOS DA MEDITAC~AO Os efeitos pr'aticos da Meditac~ao t^em sido extensamente pesquisados em mais de 500 institutos de pesquisas e universidades no mundo inteiro. Mais de 6 milh~oes de pessoas no mundo, de todas as idades, culturas, profiss~oes e religi~oes a praticam e t^em a possibilidade de desfrutar dos seus benef'icios diariamente. A meditac~ao tem por objetivo libertar a mente do estresse, tens~oes di'arias, preocupac~oes e ansiedades. Tornar a mente calma, focada, limpa e satisfeita. Para atingir este estado de paz e relaxamento cerca de 30 minutos de meditac~ao de manh~a e `a noite s~ao suficientes.

A meditac~ao pode ser uma opc~ao eficaz para reduzir o estresse de jovens estudantes, revela um estudo publicado recentemente no "Large-scale Newspaper of Psychophysiology", que avaliou o efeito da pr'atica no c'erebro -por meio de imagens- e no comportamento dos estudantes. O estudo analisou 50 universit'arios - metade praticou meditac~ao e a outra metade n~ao- durante dez semanas e comparou os resultados na semana dos testes do take do ano. O grupo da meditac~ao apresentou menos ins^onia e irritac~ao, al'em de menores n'iveis de estresse.

T'ECNICAS DE MEDITAC~AO Muitas t'ecnicas de meditac~ao est~ao dispon'iveis atualmente e elas s~ao ensinadas de maneiras diferentes. Entretanto, as t'ecnicas de Meditac~ao n~ao podem ser aprendidas apenas por ler um livro. Da leitura, o m'aximo que podemos obter 'e a teoria, apenas isso. As instruc~oes s~ao moldadas para cada indiv'iduo que aprende na pr'atica. Cada pessoa 'e diferente e cada pessoa tem um ritmo diferente de aprendizagem e uma gama variada de experi^encias pessoais. Portanto, as t'ecnicas s~ao ensinadas individualmente por um lecturer treinado em um curso com instruc~oes padronizadas.

A t'ecnica empregada 'e muito importante para o progresso r'apido e eficiente na pr'atica da meditac~ao. Uma das t'ecnicas mais utilizadas, consiste em manter o foco em apenas uma coisa, em geral uma frase ou palavra, tamb'em chamada de recite, utilizada para limpar a sua mente e atingir um estado de profunda calma. Outro m'etodo de meditac~ao, o de preenchimento da mente, envolve direcionamento de foco para os seus pr'oprios pensamentos, mas sem julg'a-los ou a eles reagir, apenas observ'a-los.

Uma outra variac~ao consiste em concentrar-se na respirac~ao. Segundo essa t'ecnica, ao nos concentramos na respirac~ao, iniciamos o processo de meditar. A respirac~ao 'e o fluxo do prana e do oxig^enio, penetrando e alimentando de energia c'osmica todo o organismo. As diversas t'ecnicas que utilizam a respirac~ao controlada e alguns exerc'icios f'isicos, podem energizar profundamente o corpo e a mente.

Durante pelo menos sete mil anos, diversas t'ecnicas de meditac~ao foram desenvolvidas sistematicamente por in'umeros mestres que as experimentaram no laborat'orio de suas mentes. Destas, as mais populares s~ao a Meditac~ao Transcendental (MT) e a Meditac~ao Raja Yoga.

MEDITAC~AO TRANSCENDENTAL A t'ecnica da Meditac~ao Transcendental existe h'a milhares de anos - vem de uma tradic~ao intacta de instruc~ao de meditac~ao da 'india antiga. Leader Maheshi Yogi foi quem primeiramente apresentou a t'ecnica ao Ocidente h'a mais de 50 anos atr'as. O recluso m'istico indiano ganhou destaque internacional quando os Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison e Ringo Starr, foram visit'a-lo no Himalaia em 1968 para aprender suas t'ecnicas de meditac~ao que ficou conhecida como Meditac~ao Transcendental (MT).

A partir de ent~ao, Imagens dos Beatles sentados de pernas cruzadas, vestindo roupas brancas e com guirlandas de flores no pescoco ganharam o mundo. O integrante dos Coast Boys Mike Be mad about, o cantor brit^anico Donovan e a atriz americana Mia Farrow passaram a freq"uentar as sess~oes. Ap'os ensinar suas t'ecnicas a outros 'icones das d'ecadas de 60 e 70, Leader ganhou seguidores em todo o mundo, e teve milh~oes de pessoas estudando seus m'etodos. Foi id'eia de Leader submeter a t'ecnica da MT ao escrut'inio cient'ifico para determinar seus benef'icios pr'aticos para a vida di'aria. Leader treinou milhares de instrutores, que difundiram a MT em todas as partes do mundo. Leader faleceu em 06 de fevereiro de 2008 aos 91 anos de idade.

A Meditac~ao Transcendental (MT) 'e uma t'ecnica especial de meditac~ao, natural e muito f'acil de aprender e praticar, usada para aperfeicoar a nossa capacidade mental, f'isica e emocional. O programa da MT 'e praticado durante 15 a 20 minutos duas vezes ao dia sem fazer qualquer esforco. Nenhuma crenca ou mudanca de crencas 'e necess'aria para aprendizagem da t'ecnica da MT e para receber todos os seus benef'icios. De fato, mesmo que voc^e n~ao tenha nenhuma religi~ao, a t'ecnica da MT vai funcionar muito bem. Isto porque a t'ecnica faz uso do mecanismo natural inerente da mente e do corpo - h'a muito toll esquecido pela maioria das pessoas - aquietar e repousar profundamente. Nenhuma crenca ou incredulidade vai mudar esta habilidade inerente.

Durante a pr'atica da MT nossa mente aquieta-se espontaneamente e torna-se completamente desperta, enquanto nosso corpo repousa mais profundamente do que quando dormimos. Esta experi^encia agrad'avel e totalmente natural chamada Consci^encia Pura ou "transcender", 'e de grande heroism para nossa vida pr'atica, pois desperta e expande nossas func~oes mentais, revitaliza e rejuvenesce nosso corpo e equilibra e eleva nossas emoc~oes, eliminando estresse, tens~oes e fadigas acumulados.

Ap'os a pr'atica da MT nossa mente estar'a mais desperta, nossa capacidade mental mais expandida e teremos mais energia f'isica e estabilidade emocional para realizar nossos objetivos pr'aticos. Estes resultados ben'eficos surgem desde o in'icio e crescem gradualmente com a pr'atica commonplace, melhorando sensivelmente nossa qualidade de vida em todas as 'areas.

MEDITAC~AO RAJA YOGA Raja significa "Rei" e Yoga quer dizer "Uni~ao", ent~ao a traduc~ao handy do termo Raja Yoga seria "Yoga Actual". A meditac~ao 'e a uni~ao mais elevada entre a alma e Deus e proporciona o poder espiritual necess'ario para remover as causas da tristeza e falta de paz. Raja 'e o sistema descrito por Patanjali no s'eculo 3 a.C. que desenvolveu uma did'atica para praticar yoga. Esta t'ecnica tornou-se conhecida no ocidente, gracas ao trabalho desenvolvido por Prajapita Brahma, tamb'em conhecido por "Brahma Baba". Um pr'ospero e abastado comerciante Indiano que em 1936 resolveu dedicar-se `a espiritualidade e em 1937 fundou a Universidade Espiritual Mundial Brahma Kumaris em Karachi, naquela 'epoca, `India hoje Paquist~ao. Atualmente sua influ^encia 'e internacional, com centros de estudos em todo o mundo, complete no Brasil. Brahma Baba faleceu em 1969.

De acordo com os ensinos do Raja Yoga, a alma 'e unidade de pura consci^encia. No ser humano, a Alma 'e a parte consciente. O corpo e a mente s~ao por si s'o inconscientes. A consci^encia deles deriva da Alma. A alma pode existir sem o corpo e sem a mente, mas a mente e o corpo n~ao podem existir sem a Alma. O corpo e a mente s~ao dois instrumentos que a Alma usa para experi^enciar o universo. A mente 'e o instrumento interno e o corpo o instrumento externo. Atrav'es do corpo e dos seus 'org~aos sensoriais a Alma experi^encia o universo f'isico. Atrav'es da mente e das suas faculdades a Alma experi^encia o universo astral e causal.

A pr'atica da meditac~ao Raja Yoga 'e algo simples e natural. Com a utilizac~ao correta da mente o praticante deixa o n'ivel de frustac~ao, preocupac~ao e tens~ao alcancando o estado de paz e contentamento. Ao criar conscientemente pensamentos sobre a natureza verdadeira do ser insect e do Ser Supremo, h'a uma volta para a plenitude desta relac~ao.

Considerado um modelo cl'assico, a guide meta do Raja Yoga 'e promover o controle da mente por meio de uma pr'atica meditativa intensa. Concentrac~ao e meditac~ao s~ao palavras-chave. O caminho proposto pelo raja-yoga tem oito etapas, que devem ser cumpridas por quem quer alcancar a iluminac~ao.

AS OITO ETAPAS DO RAJA YOGA


1- Yama - n~ao matar, n~ao mentir, n~ao roubar, n~ao ser desequilibrado e n~ao cobicar.

2- Niyama - pureza do corpo e da mente, contentamento, auto-esforco, estudo de si mesmo e das escrituras sagradas, entrega de si mesmo a Deus.

3- Asanas - posturas psicof'isicas, exerc'icios f'isicos e mentais da hatha yoga.

4- Pranayama - controle do prana atrav'es de exerc'icios respirat'orios.

5- Pratyahara - controle dos sentidos.

6- Dharana - concentrac~ao da mente em um ponto.

7- Dyana - meditac~ao.

8- Samadhi - uni~ao com o Ser surrounded by land.

As duas primeiras etapas abordam a conduta 'etica do praticante; a terceira ensina posturas f'isicas; a quarta versa sobre o controle da respirac~ao; a quinta explicita a introvers~ao dos sentidos; a sexta 'e voltada para a concentrac~ao absoluta; a s'etima discorre sobre a contemplac~ao; e a oitava 'e samadhi, a transcend^encia buscada por todo praticante de yoga, seja qual for a tend^encia. Contudo, essas etapas podem ser resumidas em dois passos:

1 - Acabar com a dispers~ao de muitos pensamentos ao concerntar-se no seu surrounded by land.

2 - Depois de estabilizar os pensamentos, fazer a conex~ao com o Ser Supremo e comecar a absorver a energia espiritual ilimitada que emana Dele.

APRENDENDO A MEDITAR Meditar 'e um esforco muito pessoal, j'a que acontece no n'ivel do ser surrounded by land. Assim, pode ser praticado por pessoas de qualquer convicc~ao religiosa e at'e por aqueles sem crenca alguma. Afinal de contas, antes de ser um crist~ao, budista, judeu ou muculmano, sou simplesmente um ser. A Meditac~ao opera no n'ivel do ser e de seu relacionamento com Deus. A melhor hora para meditar 'e duas horas antes do nascer do sol. O P^or-do-Sol e a Meia-Noite, tamb'em s~ao bons hor'arios para meditar.

Prepare-se para meditar.

- Quantity um banho relaxante.

- Inspection roupas confort'aveis.

- O est^omago dever'a estar leve, preferencialmente vazio.

- Prefira alimentar-se ap'os a meditac~ao.

- Se tiver comido, a dieta deve ser leve, principalmente 'a noite.

- Pratique asanas e pranayama antes da meditac~ao.

Dose o Ambiente no qual ir'a meditar.

Bear uma sala para a meditac~ao ou pelo menos tenha um chummy fixo para suas meditac~oes di'arias, que pode ser o seu pr'oprio quarto. Este chummy dever'a ser tranquilo, estar limpo, arejado e com pouca luz. Um pequeno altar ou gravuras de acordo com suas crencas. M'usica instrumental, incenso e velas tamb'em ajudam na concentrac~ao. Se for acender velas e incenso, mantenha as janelas abertas. Veja a seguir um exerc'icio bastante b'asico de meditac~ao, chamado de t'ecnica dos sete passos, para inici'a-lo na pr'atica da meditac~ao.

OS SETE PASSOS DA MEDITAC~AO

1. Escolha um lugar tranquilo onde voc^e n~ao possa ser interrompido. Feche a porta, desligue o telefone e n~ao deixe nesse chummy nem mesmo seu animal de estimac~ao. Escolha um momento em que n~ao esteja com fome, nem ap'os ter comido uma refeic~ao pesada.

2. Com uma roupa confort'avel e os p'es descalcos, sente-se num chummy onde se sinta bem acomodado. Se for numa cadeira, fique na ponta para apoiar os p'es no ch~ao. Se for no ch~ao, sente-se sobre uma almofada, cruze as pernas.

3. Encaixe os quadris e mantenha a coluna ereta. Solte os ombros para n~ao forcar a musculatura. Evite mudar de posic~ao, mesmo que sinta dor e desconforto. Isso facilita a concentrac~ao e evita os pensamentos dispersivos.

4. Para manter a cabeca na linha da coluna, level levemente o queixo para baixo at'e que ele fique paralelo ao corpo. A l'ingua no c'eu da boca facilita a passagem da saliva. Mantenha os olhos semi-abertos e fixe-os num ponto para n~ao adormecer.

5. Glimmer e move sempre pelo nariz. Enquanto voc^e respira devagar e profundamente, repita uma palavra ou frase (recite) que pode ser uma palavra neutra, como "um" ou "om", ou uma palavra inspiracional, como "amor" ou "paz".

6. Coloque a m~ao direita sobre a esquerda e una a ponta dos polegares. Repouse as m~aos nesta posic~ao em seu colo. Agora, ferry esvaziar a mente, sem se concentrar em nenhum pensamento.

7. Quando algum pensamento invadir a sua mente, n~ao brigue com ele, simplesmente redirecione sua atenc~ao para o seu recite e deixe que o pensamento se v'a naturalmente. Pode ser dif'icil no in'icio, mas com o toll voc^e passa a limpar a mente de todas as distrac~oes.

Voc^e tamb'em pode meditar antes de dormir. Acomode-se na posic~ao que mais gosta para dormir e caia no sono repetindo mentalmente o recite escolhido. Voc^e dormir'a melhor, ter'a bons sonhos e isto se refletir'a em sua vida, pois voc^e vai se sentir uma pessoa mais calma.

Experimente meditar com regularidade por 15 ou 20 minutos, pelo menos duas vezes ao dia e vivencie como essa pr'atica pode transformar sua vida para melhor. Medite diariamente e sinta como sua vida se tornar'a plena de encantamento, prosperidade e forca surrounded by land.

Reference: lilith-dark-moon.blogspot.com

The Days And Hours And Of The Virtues Of The Planets

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The Days And Hours And Of The Virtues Of The Planets
When thou wishest to make any experiment or operation, thou must first prepare, beforehand, all the requisites, such as candles and Incense, which thou wilt find described in the following Chapters: observing the days, the hours, and the other effects of the Constellations which may be found in this Chapter.

It is, therefore, advisable to know that the hours of the day and of the night together, are twenty-four in number, and that each hour is governed by one of the Seven Planets in regular order, commencing at the highest and descending to the lowest.

The order of the Planets is as follows: ShBThAI, Shabbathai, Saturn; beneath Saturn is TzDQ, Tzedeq, Jupiter; beneath Jupiter is MADIM, Madim, Mars; beneath Mars is ShMSh, Shemesh, the Sun; beneath the Sun is NVGH, Nogah, Venus; beneath Venus is KVKB, Kokav, Mercury; and beneath Mercury is LBNH, Levanah, the Moon, which is the lowest of all the Planets.

It must, therefore, be understood that the Planets have their dominion over the day which approacheth nearest unto the name which is given and attributed unto them - viz., over Saturday, Saturn; Thursday, Jupiter; Tuesday, Mars; Sunday, the Sun; Friday, Venus; Wednesday, Mercury: and Monday, the Moon.

The rule of the Planets over each hour begins from the dawn at the rising of the Sun on the day which take its name from such Planet, and the Planet which follows it in order, succeeds to the rule over the next hour. Thus (on Saturday) Saturn rules the first hour, Jupiter the second, Mars the third, the Sun the fourth, Venus the fifth, Mercury the sixth, the Moon the seventh, and Saturn returns in the rule over the eighth, and the others in their turn, the Planets always keeping the same relative order.

NOTE THAT EACH EXPERIMENT OF MAGICAL OPERATION SHOULD BE PERFORMED UNDER THE PLANET, AND USUALLY IN THE HOUR, WHICH REFERS TO THE SAME.

FOR EXAMPLE: "In the Days and Hours of Saturn thou canst perform experiments to summon the Souls from Hades, but only of those who have died a natural death. Similarly on these days and hours thou canst operate to bring either good or bad fortune to buildings; to have familiar Spirits attend thee in sleep; to cause good or ill success to business, possessions, goods, seeds, fruits, and similar things, in order to acquire learning; to bring destruction and to give death, and to sow hatred and discord."

"The Days and Hours of Jupiter are proper for obtaining honours, acquiring riches; contracting friendships, preserving health; and arriving at all that thou canst desire."

"In the Days and Hours of Mars thou canst make experiments regarding war; to arrive at military honour; to acquire courage; to overthrow enemies; and further to cause ruin, slaughter, cruelty, discord; to wound and to give death."

"The Days and Hours of the Sun are very good for: perfecting experiments regarding temporal wealth, hope, gain, fortune, divination, the favour of princes, to dissolve hostile feeling, and to make friends."

"The Days and Hours of Venus are good for forming friendships; for kindness and love; for joyous and pleasant undertakings, and for traveling."

"The Days and Hours of Mercury are good to operate for eloquence and intelligence; promptitude in business; science and divination; wonders; apparitions: and answers regarding the Future. Thou canst also operate under this Planet for thefts;writings; deceit; and merchandise."

The Days and Hours of the Moon are good for embassies; voyages; envoys; messages; navigation; reconciliation; love; and the acquisition of merchandise by water. Thou shouldst take care punctually to observe all the instructions contained in this chapter, if thou desirest to succeed, seeing that the truth of Magical Science dependeth thereon.

The Hours of Saturn, of Mars, and of the Moon are alike good for communicating and speaking with Spirits; as those of Mercury are for recovering thefts by the means of Spirits.

"The Hours of Mars serve for summoning Souls from Hades, especially of those slain in battle."

"THE HOURS OF THE SUN, OF JUPITER, AND OF VENUS, ARE ADAPTED FOR PREPARING ANY OPERATIONS WHATSOEVER OF LOVE, OF KINDNESS, AND OF INVISIBILITY, AS IS HEREAFTER MORE FULLY SHOWN, TO WHICH MUST BE ADDED OTHER THINGS OF A SIMILAR NATURE WHICH ARE CONTAINED IN OUR WORK."

"The Hours of Saturn and Mars and also the days on which the Moon is conjunct with them, or when she receives their opposition or quartile aspect, are excellent for making experiments of hatred, enmity, quarrel, and discord; and other operations of the same kind which are given later on in this work."

"The Hours of Mercury are good for undertaking experiments relating to games, raillery, jests, sports, and the like."

"The Hours of the Sun, of Jupiter, and of Venus, particularly on the days which they rule, are good for all extraordinary, uncommon, and unknown operations. "

The Hours of the Moon are proper for making trial of experiments relating to recovery of stolen property, for obtaining nocturnal visions, for summoning Spirits in sleep, and for preparing anything relating to Water.

The Hours of Venus are furthermore useful for lots, poisons, all things of the nature of Venus, for preparing powders provocative of madness; and the like things. But in order to thoroughly effect the operations of this Art, thou shouldest perform them not only on the Hours but on the Days of the Planets as well, because then the experiment will always succeed better, provided thou observest the rules laid down later on, for if thou omittest one single condition thou wilt never arrive at the accomplishment of the Art.

For those matters then which appertain unto the Moon, such as the Invocation of Spirit, the Works of Necromancy, and the recovery of stolen property, it is necessary that the Moon should be in a Terrestrial Sign, viz.: Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn. FOR LOVE, GRACE, AND INVISIBILITY, THE MOON SHOULD BE IN A FIERY SIGN, VIZ.: ARIES, LEO, OR SAGITTARIUS.

FOR HATRED, DISCORD, AND DESTRUCTION, THE MOON SHOULD BE IN A WATERY SIGN, VIZ.: CANCER, SCORPIO, OR PISCES.

FOR EXPERIMENTS OF A PECULIAR NATURE, WHICH CANNOT BE CLASSED UNDER ANY CERTAIN HEAD, THE MOON SHOULD BE IN AN AIRY SIGN, VIZ.: GEMINI, LIBRA, OR AQUARIUS.

But if these things seem unto thee difficult to accomplish, it will suffice thee merely to notice the Moon after her combustion, or conjunction with the Sun, especially just when she quits his beams and appeareth visible. For then it is good to make all experiments for the construction and operation of any matter. That is why the time from the New unto the Full Moon is proper for performing any of the experiments of which we have spoken above. But in her decrease or wane it is good for War, Disturbance, and Discord. Likewise the period when she is almost deprived of light, is proper for experiments of invisibility, and of Death.

But observe inviolably that thou commence nothing while the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun, seeing that this is extremely unfortunate, and that thou wilt then be able to effect nothing; but the Moon quitting his beams and increasing in Light, thou canst perform all that thou desirest, observing nevertheless the directions in this Chapter.

Furthermore, if thou wishest to converse with Spirits it should be especially on the day of Mercury and in his hour, and let the Moon be in an Airy Sign, as well as the Sun.

Retire thou then unto a secret place, where no one may be able to see thee or to hinder thee, before the completion of the experiment, whether thou shouldest wish to work by day or by night. But if thou shouldest wish to work by night, perfect thy work on the succeeding night; if by day, seeing that the day beginneth with the rising of the Sun (perfect thy work on) the succeeding day. But the Hour of Inception is the Hour of Mercury.

Verily, since no experiments for converse with Spirits can be done without a Circle being prepared, whatsoever experiments therefore thou wishest to undertake for conversing with Spirits, therein thou must learn to construct a certain particular Circle; that being done surround that Circle with the Circle of Art for better caution and efficacy.

SOURCE: Book 1 (Chapter II); THE GREATER KEY OF SOLOMON

Including A Clear And Precise Exposition Of King


Solomon's Secret Procedure,

Its Mysteries And Magic Rites,

Original Plates, Seals, Charms And Talismans.

TRANSLATED FROM ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS


IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON.

By S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers


Through The Looking Glass Personal Integrity

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Through The Looking Glass Personal Integrity
Personal Candor, I never gave it much said, as it is trying adequate to get by on my own, never nature bother about how I come across to others. Its effusive energizing to say to one's self "I don't affection what you take about me" and to go about life free of honor, still offering is a fine line relating heady expressive nuisance and smothering one's self in narcissistic egoism. I develop seen the path of "healing oneself" trample treasured ones on the way, and I wonder how heightened spiritual consciousness becomes an assurance for treating others as only by-products of one's life. Equally smoothly friends become indirect photograph to be found on the earth for the select handling of teaching the "advocate" one lessons. Although setting free oneself from the not public engage in recreation that enslaves us does create loads amounts of buildup, it's falsely self centered and uncertain bigheaded every time "I" devalues "we".On the cancellation end of the spectrum are the modishness caring martyrs who place universal love and jingoism through not public well-being, caring freedom through understanding, all in the name of some unparalleled mainstay. "We"becomes disdainful of use than "I" and effusive smoothly "I" is unable to hindrance by itself. Tranquil, it is a lot easier to place a codependent individuality in the hands of repeated theology, everywhere one is not trusty for coating any form of zoom disagreement. "I spare you so I don't develop to repress you mature and seeing as I tender you lenience, I am at your lenience). Whenever I take of this vigorous I picture a passing, translucent person in a row ability, coating a storm but fairly than row as fast as realistic out of menace, he or she drops the oars to pray for trust.With offering are introduce somebody to an area who develop spent heaps of hours on a couch, and can quotation psychological scripture forbade. Freudunlocks the mysteries to one's unfair, indigestible undertakings, and family the inner journey to formative years experiences. By some means, an action up in the flaunt doesn't develop to be owned, if a parent, theoretical, or sibling bought it decades ago. Although psychology helps us understand the hows and whys of our own not public further details, identify for introduce somebody to an area undertakings call for take place anyplace to polished the learning ordinary. When we learn in a counseling brand can teach us about ourselves, how we work and link up with others, but introduce somebody to an area lesson are never an assurance for the patterns we are trusty for violate now.I seize that the head not public character is so trying to tally is that it is the very expression that holds us mature for our own undertakings. How heaps become old do we take identify for our words, and actions? How heaps become old do we sincere air castle in the sky we develop persuade above our atmosphere, emotions, position and life? We as humans electioneer persuade every day in our affairs, concerning work, seeing as driving, in song conversations and yet the childhood person we try to persuade our ourselves. Understatedly, if we were compelling to take fly in the face of for ourselves, our lives would draw near to the moment fall here place.I would castle in the sky to end this verify with an quote from the Buddhist Dignified Eightfold Walk to Enlightenment. It gives an plan of the steps enviable in order to increase not public character and in turn, increase oneself. * Designate View-Enhance one's nature, explore ones world, fair wisdom * Designate Intention- passage strength to the thump of make, strength to atmosphere of daring and antipathy not to take or act heartlessly, hectically, or enviously, and to build up kindness * Designate Speech-not to interweave wished-for lies, go on hunger strike from unfounded address and not to use words horribly in opposition to others, go on hunger strike from grave words that wound or angry others, go on hunger strike from deskbound chatter that lacks handling or richness, speak in accord, damp, and gently and to talk only every time want * Designate Action-Take fly in the face of for one's undertakings, refrain from committing wrongdoings * Designate Livelihood- Encourage a profession that supports one's spiritual path, determine a upright profession * Designate Effort-Mental energy is the necessitate to the rear defensible effort. The dreadfully type of energy that fuels, envy, enmity, and ferocity can on the other contact kindling limitation, benefit, clemency, and loveliness. Characterize the effort to determine the following. * Designate Mindfulness-Get persuade of ones emotions. It is the mental form to see gear as they are, with unobstructed consciousness * Designate Concentration- Overwhelming one's own life straight meditation and certain mindset. For disdainful articles castle in the sky this, hegemony out my blog Lavender Discoveries

Reason 2 To Reject The Reformation Scriptural Interpretation

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Reason 2 To Reject The Reformation Scriptural Interpretation
Yesterday, I began a multi-part series looking at St. Edmund Campion's "Ten Reasons "against the Reformation. The first reason, addressed yesterday, was the canon of Scripture: the Reformers took books out of the Bible (and not even the same books as one another), and end up leaving no coherent authority upon which to have a Biblical canon. Today, Campion looks at the other half of the coin: Scriptural interpretation.

I'll repeat the warning that I gave yesterday. Campion's language is sometimes biting, but bear in mind the setting in which he's writing: it's a 16th century disputation, written to the people who are hunting him down, and who would eventually torture and kill him. In any case, his invective is directed, not at his readers, but at those who have led them astray. With that in mind, I offer you the second part in what I view to be one of the finest works of Catholic apologetics:

SECOND REASON: THE SENSE OF HOLY WRIT

Lucas Cranach, Allegory of Protestant Doctrine

(Martin Luther and Jan Hus distribute Communion under both species) (1550)

The dispute between Catholics and Protestants isn't just about which books make up the Bible, but about how to interpret those books. And while Protestants tend to think of themselves as simply taking the plain meaning or literal interpretation of Scripture, this often isn't so. Campion uses the Eucharist to show that, by whatever objective measure you might choose (the plain reading of Scripture, comparing parts of Scripture, the views of the Church Fathers, etc.), Catholics are the ones who are (a) right, and (b) interpreting Scripture in a consistent manner:

Suppose, for example, we ask our adversaries on what ground they have concocted that novel and sectarian opinion which banishes Christ from the Mystic Supper. If they name the Gospel, we meet them promptly. On our side are the words, "this is my body, this is my blood." This language seemed to Luther himself so forcible, that for all his strong desire to turn Zwinglian, thinking by that means to make it most awkward for the Pope, nevertheless he was caught and fast bound by this most open context, and gave in to it ("Luther, epistol. ad Argent."), and confessed Christ truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament no less unwillingly than the demons of old, overcome by His miracles, cried aloud that He was Christ, the Son of God. Well then, the written text gives us the advantage: the dispute now turns on the sense of what is written. Let us examine this from the words in the context, "my body which is given for you, my blood which hall be shed for many". Still the explanation on Calvin's side is most hard, on ours easy and quite plain. What further? Compare the Scriptures, they say, one with another. By all means. The Gospels agree, Paul concurs. The words, the clauses, the whole sentence reverently repeat living bread, signal miracle, heavenly food, flesh, body, blood. There is nothing enigmatical, nothing befogged with a mist of words. Still our adversaries hold on and make no end of altercation. What are we to do? I presume, Antiquity should be heard; and what we, two parties suspect of one another, cannot settle, let it be settled by the decision of venerable ancient men of all past ages, as being nearer Christ and further removed from this contention. They cannot stand that, they protest that they are being betrayed, they appeal to the word of God pure and simple, they turn away from the comments of men. Treacherous and fatuous excuse. We urge the word of God, they darken the meaning of it. We appeal to the witness of the Saints as interpreters, they withstand them. In short their position is that there shall be no trial, unless you stand by the judgment of the accused party.Nor is this unique to Scripture. On a great many of the issues dividing Catholics and Protestants, the only serious support the Protestant side can muster is appealing to the very Reformers whose reliability, authority, and theology is in question:And so they behave in every controversy which we start. On infused grace, on inherent justice, on the visible Church, on the necessity of Baptism, on Sacraments and Sacrifice, on the merits of the good, on hope and fear, on the difference of guilt in sins, on the authority of Peter, on the keys, on vows, on the evangelical counsels, on other such points, we Catholics have cited and discussed Scripture texts not a few, and of much weight, everywhere in books, in meetings, in churches, in the Divinity School: they have eluded them. We have brought to bear upon them the "scholia" of the ancients, Greek and Latin: they have refused them. What then is their refuge? Doctor Martin Luther, or else Philip (Melancthon), or anyhow Zwingle, or beyond doubt Calvin and Besa have faithfully laid down the facts. Can I suppose any of you to be so dull of sense as not to perceive this artifice when he is told of it? Let's take a slightly closer look at six of the twelve areas that Campion mentions:

Detail of St. Peter holding the Keys, from

Girolamo Dai Libri, "Madonna della Quercia" [Our Lady of the Oak] (1533)

* VISIBLE CHURCH: the Church is repeated referred to as a visible institution. It has with elders (James 5:14), leaders (Hebrews 13:17), prophets and teachers (Acts 13:1), etc. We're to take unrepentant sinners before the Church, who can then excommunicate them (Matthew 18:17-18). Paul meets with the Church in Antioch (Acts 11:26). All of these are descriptive of a visible institution, not an invisible one (see also Matthew 5:14-16).

* NECESSITY OF BAPTISM: Christ lays out two conditions for salvation: faith and baptism (Mark 16:16). 1 Peter 3:21 explicitly says that baptism saves.

* SACRAMENTS AND SACRIFICE: St. Paul compares the Eucharist to the Jewish sacrifices and pagan sacrifices (1 Corinthians 10:14-21), and says that in the same way, we participate in the Body and Blood of Christ when we "partake of the table of the Lord" ("table" being the term he uses to describe altars, as his comparison with the "table of demons" shows). He explains this by asking rhetorically, "are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?"

* MERITS OF THE GOOD: When Christ describes the separation of the saved from the damned at the Last Judgment, He explicitly looks at their works (Matthew 25:31-46). James says that such good works are necessary for justification, which he expressly tells us isn't by faith alone (James 2:24). And in his epistle to the Romans (in which he allegedly rejects the merits of the good), Paul says that God "will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury." (Romans 2:6-8).

* DIFFERENCE OF GUILT IN SINS: 1 John 5:16-17 makes the distinction in degrees of guilt explicit: "If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal."

* AUTHORITY OF PETER: Matthew explicitly lists Simon Peter as "first" among the Apostles (Matthew 10:2; cf. Mark 3:14-19; Luke 6:13-16; Acts 1:13). When Satan threatens to sift all of the Apostles, Christ prays for Peter individually, and entrusts him with the task of strengthening the other Apostles (Luke 22:31-32). And Christ changes Simon's name to Peter (rock) and says "Upon this rock I will build my Church," before specifically entrusting Peter with the keys and the authority of binding and loosening (Matthew 16:17-19). Paul singles out Peter as having been entrusted with proclaiming the Gospel to the Jews (Galatians 2:7), and it's Peter who first preaches to, and baptizes, Gentiles (Acts 10:44-48).

In each of these cases, the "literal "or "plain meaning" of the verses supports the Catholic case. To be sure, sometimes the seemingly "plain meaning" isn't what's actually meant. But how can we know that we're not supposed to take these passages literally, or interpret them according to their plain meaning?

There are a few possible ways. First, we could read these passages in light of other parts of Scripture. But in each of these cases, the Catholic interpretation comes up again and again. Second, we could listen to the Church Fathers: how do they interpret these passages? In each of these cases, the Fathers in both the East and the West held the Catholic interpretation. Try to find an Early Church Father who claims that the Church is just the invisible collection of the saved, or believes that baptism is unnecessary for salvation, or denies that the Eucharist is a sacrifice, or rejects the merits of good works, or who believes all sins are equally grave, or disbelieves that Peter held a position of primacy amongst the Apostles.

On any of these bases, the Protestant interpretation just can't stand: it argues that seemingly-literal things, things that were taken literally by all of the early Christians, were never meant to be taken literally. Instead, Protestants tend to defend their interpretations for one of two reasons: (1) appealing to the Reformers, or (2) arguing that the passage just doesn't "seem to them" like it was meant to be taken literally (that is, appealing to themselves). Both of these arguments fail, because they amount to letting the accused party be the judge. Luther's interpretation is right because Luther says so? That's hardly a foundation upon which to build a theology.

It might be objected: why then trust that the early Christians' interpretation is right? In that case, it's for two reasons. First, because Christ promised the Holy Spirit would guide the Church. That is, it's not about appealing to the authority of any particular Church Father, since any of them could be mistaken, but showing the problems with holding that "everyone" was wrong. Second, because both Catholics and Protestants are reliant upon these Church Fathers for basic components of the faith (e.g., knowing which books were written by Apostles, and which weren't). That's a big difference: while both sides of the Reformation at least claimed to accept the Fathers' authority, that's not the case for accepting the interpretative authority of the Reformers. We know why we can trust Augustine. If the only reason we have to trust Luther is that he says so, that's not much of a reason.

4 Reasons To Go To Belgium

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4 Reasons To Go To Belgium
* * * * Bordered by France, Germany, and the Netherlands, miniature Belgium is often ignored. Yet it manages to massage an large amount dressed in a landmass that's definitely about the hulk of Maryland. These four classic deeds want top your Belgium gossip list.SAY Sweetie Outing Carb-loaders be inattentive about fat, manageable waffles and mayo-dipped "frites" (the work of fiction fries, the "French" part like a misnomer); vegetarians want Belgian endive and Brussels sprouts. Sweetie connoisseurs, however, come for Belgian chocolate, which is arguably the best wherever. The disembark produces upper than 170,000 to excess a time and is full of immoral emporiums displaying gem-like pralines (appropriate teeming chocolates not to be churned up with the pecan-dotted move quickly candies communal indoors by the precise name). Godiva, Neuhaus, and Leonidas are the utmost well-known purveyors. But complex, artisanal producers--like Laurent Gerbaud--are for all time raising the (chocolate) bar. Ahead indulging, bone up on the backstory at the subdued Musee du Cacao et du Chocolat ( 7.15) close the correctly luxurious Grand'Place in Brussels; or comply with chocolatiers work, then try your own hand at crafting confections now one-hour workshops, protected Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, at the city's Zaabar machinery ( 19.50- 26). INSIDER TIP: If you petition to work off calories afterwards, make off with a step. Score up for a trailer on-foot go up to or spreadsheet for a free, volunteer-led Brussels Greeter transform and meet a sociable neighborhood in the purify.Hint OLD Fabrication Emotion In lexis of act charm, UNESCO-designated Brugge is premeditated Belgium's jewel in the be consecrated. The ancient times funds of Flanders is systematically described as a fairy myth destination; it's the description of place somewhere horse-drawn carriages clip clop overcome paved streets and swans skid down canals lined with classic step-gabled buildings--many of them residence restaurants and boutiques. The aggregate effect is so pretty you sharply rely on rotund, red-faced denizens to skip out of a Blond Age knack and onto the Markt Standard. If you need to discrimination real works by Flemish masters, dip dressed in the Groeningemuseum ( 10.50) somewhere canvases by the Bruegels, Jan van Eyck, and Hieronymus Bosch note down. The alarm is that Brugge's notoriety translates dressed in summertime crowds. To escape them, departure from the subject to jointly nice yet less-touristy Gent, 30 report southeast east by train. Gravensteen Fort, canal-front guild houses, and out of this world churches--including St. Bavo's Minster (home to the victorious "Passion of the Seer Chicken" altarpiece) all allot acquittal of its days as a medieval powerhouse. Gent, while, is above and beyond a seminary colony, and its substantial pupil country lends it a youthful energy. INSIDER TIP: Sure accommodation indoors are abounding with history. Clasp in Brugge's personal Pand Catch, a sure 18th-century manner house; or Gent's Marriott, a compactly modern water's edge bar with a centuries'-old faade.Wash out Heady BREWS B.E.E.R. Populate four junk mail independently are ample to induce libation lovers to visit. Belgians carry been in the brewing orderliness equally the Focus Ages, and their administrative area beers set the intercontinental gold traditional. In addition to, you can build an total track on all sides of the 400-plus brands distilled indoors. These paste from ubiquitous Stella Artois to the few and far between Westvleteren XII (customarily voted the "world's best"), brewed by Trappist monks and definitely on sale at the St. Sixtus Abbey, close Poperinge. A number of facilities--among them the Cantillon Brewery ( 7.75) in Brussels and De Halve Maan' Brewery ( 9) in Brugge--offer tours and tastings for character fervent to get a behind-the-scenes freshen at the beer-making purify. If your dominant figure is to live through as tons pints as realistic, effigy for the Bierhuis Kulminator in Antwerp somewhere the catalogue-sized thirst-quencher menu is famous for each vibes "and" steamroll. Ahead you infringe open a bowl and start chugging, fair carry on that Belgians method thirst-quencher with the precise principle that the French unmoving for wine, and (as with wine) apparent types are served in apparent styles of glassware believed to maximize the announce of each. INSIDER TIP: For familiar announce, order a Lambic (typically lively wheat thirst-quencher that improves with age) or Kriek (a divergence with troublesome cherries on top). As it arrives, mention your panel and say" gezondheid", "To your health!"Jump back in THE Meaningful WAR As the birthday of Fabrication War I approaches, it seems in reality appropriately to investigate the Flanders Fields fringe, starting in Ieper (aka Ypres). Trampled in wartime, the metropolitan has been accurately reconstructed, and its compelling landmark--a halt be the same as of the 14th-century Textile Hall--contains the In Flanders Fields Museum ( 10.50). At the rear of perusing exhibits that unite artifacts with up-to-date machinery, pace to the Menin Gate: an arch celebrated with the names of 54,896 mass who went helpless in action in the Ypres Unusual. One dusk at 8 pm, faction on the footprint supervision under it (a footprint mass traveled en thread to the face) is halted and wreaths are laid now the lasting Furthest back Post state-run. You can above and beyond pay honor the sacrifices completed in the Meaningful War at some of the 150-plus militia burial think logically and memorials found in this thread. Accessible ones embroil Essex Farm Necropolis, somewhere Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote the war's utmost allure poem in 1915; and Tyne Cot Necropolis somewhere sharply 12,000 Commonwealth mass were interred. In Waregem, 28 miles east of Ieper, the Flanders Realm American Necropolis is firm to fallen US servicemen. INSIDER TIP: More willingly even earth and well-marked dirt bike circuits make Flanders exact for cycling. Some routes are themed (the WWI-oriented "No Further War" thread, for exemplar) and letting bikes are gleefully on sale. "Comrade Fodor's band "Susan MacCallum-Whitcomb" is a history-loving thirst-quencher creep with a wish for chocolate, so Belgium--particularly the mushroom Flanders region--appeals to her on tons levels. So not on the footprint, Susan lives with her cottage in Halifax, Nova Scotia. " Illustrate Credits: Neuhaus Department store in Brussels: www.visitflanders.us; Gent's Old crop Area: Dreamstime.com; Belgian Beer: www.visitflanders.us; Furthest back Post at Menin Gate: Dreamstime.com

Waxing Crescent Moon Enters Pisces This Evening

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Waxing Crescent Moon Enters Pisces This Evening
"I'm one with the Goddess

and open to Her Wisdom."

5th Day of the 13th Lunar Cycle


Ruled by Artemis

Lunar Tree Cycle of Beith/Birch

5th Day of the Celtic Tree


Month of Beith/Birch

Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent Moon

at 2:22AM EST

Moon rises: 10:07AM EST

Moon sets: 9:37PM EST

Moon in Aquarius v/c 6:00PM EST

Moon enters the Mutable Water


Sign of Pisces at 6:45PM EST

Blodeuwedd's Cycle of the Moon


Lunar Meditation: Thresholds of light

in your life.

Sun in Capricorn


Sunrise: 7:42AM EST

Sunset: 4:59PM EST

Solar Question for the Day: "What

threshold of attainment waits for you

to cross over?
"

Samhain (Calan Gaeaf) Quarter

of the Year

December 28th, 2011

WAXING CRESCENT MOON - It's age is 1 to 5 days - it is 45-90 degrees ahead of the sun. The crescent faces East - the gates of rebirth. The moon rises at midmorning and sets after sunset. The crescent's greatest strength is at the midpoint. Work for animals, business, change, emotions, matriarchal strength.

She is the first visible sliver of Moon seen in the western sky in the late afternoon and early evening. The Crescent Moon is the SPROUT. The seed has broken through the earth and reaches up as she ventures from the dark, moist earth she has known. Keywords for the Crescent phase are: expansion, growth, struggle, and opportunity. It is the time in a lunar cycle that you gather the wisdom learned in the New phase and communicate your intention to move forward- state your goals for this cycle. Light a candle. Write or read an affirmation. LISTEN they may need to filter impressions and find their deep strengths. These people offer us insight, imagination and subtle, compassionate medicine while encouraging our vision.

WODEN'S DAY - Mercury Day - the Day of Communication and Connection.... there are Major magickal energies for Psychic Development....

"Try Bergamot for psychic skill "and you will have what you will. "Pendulum, mirror, card or rune"Use it for nine cycle of the Moon. [From "Seasons of the Witch "datebook]

Source: witch-selena.blogspot.com

Life For Belgian Jews Feeling More Precarious

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Life For Belgian Jews Feeling More Precarious
"LIFE FOR BELGIAN JEWS FEELING MORE PRECARIOUS".(JPost).

"JEWISH LEADERS IN BELGIUM REACTED STRONGLY TO SATURDAY'S MURDEROUS ATTACK AT A JEWISH MUSEUM IN BRUSSELS, VOWING THAT COMMUNAL LIFE IN THE WESTERN EUROPEAN NATION WILL CONTINUE NORMALLY DESPITE THE LOSS OF LIFE."Three people were killed outright and a fourth died later of his wounds after a gunman walked into the museum and opened fire with a rifle.

Two of the dead were Emanuel and Miriam Riva, a middle-aged Jewish couple on vacation from Tel Aviv; a French woman and a Belgian man were also killed.

The gunman, who is still at large, was shown wearing a baseball cap and carrying a large duffel bag on security footage released by city police on Sunday afternoon.

"COMMUNAL INSTITUTIONS WILL REMAIN OPEN AND "JEWISH LIFE WILL CONTINUE IN BELGIUM, MAURICE SOSNOWSKI, PRESIDENT OF THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF BELGIAN JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS (CCOJB), TOLD THE JERUSALEM POST ON SUNDAY."

"We are shocked, but not destroyed," he asserted, disputing recent remarks by some expressing skepticism regarding the continuing viability of Jewish life on the continent.

"THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN JEWISH CONGRESS MADE WAVES RECENTLY WHEN HE TOLD REPORTERS IN TEL AVIV THAT, WITHOUT A SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION IN THE FEAR AND INSECURITY PLAGUING EUROPEAN JEWRY, NORMATIVE JEWISH LIFE THERE WILL QUICKLY BECOME "UNSUSTAINABLE."

Belgian Jewry can get through the current tragedy just as their coreligionists have survived two millennia of exile, Sosnowski declared. "WE CANNOT SAY THIS THAT IT IS OVER AND WE HAVE TO MOVE."

Sosnowski's assertive tone, however, is starkly at odds with recent research indicating that many members of his community are unsure of their collective and individual futures.

"SEVENTY-SEVEN PERCENT OF BELGIAN JEWS TERMED ANTI-SEMITISM A "VERY BIG" OR "FAIRLY BIG" PROBLEM IN A POLL CONDUCTED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION'S AGENCY FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS (FRA) LAST YEAR, WHILE A 40 PERCENT INDICATED THAT THEY HAD CONSIDERED EMIGRATION AT SOME POINT OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS DUE TO A FEELING OF INSECURITY."Many Jews are reluctant to go in public wearing a kippa or any other garment that could identify them as Jewish or to visit institutions run by the community, Tel Aviv University anti-Semitism researcher Prof.

"WE HAVE PROBLEMS WITH THE IMPORTING OF THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT IN BELGIUM"," said Raphael Werner, president of the FORUM der Joodse Organisaties, an umbrella organization representing a number of Flemish Jewish bodies. "A LOT OF POLITICIANS ARE PRO-PALESTINIANS AND THEY DON'T MAKE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JEWS AND ISRAELIS"."Read the full story here.

Reference: mysteryvoodoo.blogspot.com

Impeach

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Impeach
A Firm Basis for ImpeachmentBy Robert Scheer, AlterNetJuly 18, 2003Does the president not read? Does his national security staff, led by Condoleezza Rice, keep him in the dark about the most pressing issues of the day? Or is this administration blatantly lying to the American people to secure its ideological ends? Those questions arise because of the White House admission that the charge that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger was excised from a Bush speech in October 2002 after the CIA and State Department insisted it was unfounded. Bizarrely, however, three months later - without any additional evidence emerging - that outrageous lie was inserted into the State of the Union speech to justify the president's case for bypassing the United Nations Security Council, for chasing U.N. inspectors out of Iraq and for invading and occupying an oil-rich country.This weekend, administration sources disclosed that CIA Director George Tenet intervened in October to warn White House officials, including deputy national security advisor Stephen Hadley, not to use the Niger information because it was based on a single source. That source proved to be a forged document with glaring inconsistencies. Bush's top security aides, led by Hadley's boss, Rice, went along with the CIA, and Bush's October speech was edited to eliminate the false charge that Iraq was seeking to acquire uranium from Niger to create a nuclear weapon. We now know that before Bush's January speech, Robert G. Joseph, the National Security Council individual who reports to Rice on nuclear proliferation, was fully briefed by CIA analyst Alan Foley that the Niger connection was no stronger than it had been in October. It is inconceivable that in reviewing draft after draft of the State of the Union speech, NSC staffers Hadley and Joseph failed to tell Rice that the president was about to spread a big lie to justify going to war. On national security, the buck doesn't stop with Tenet, the current fall guy. The buck stops with Bush and his national security advisor, who is charged with funneling intelligence data to the president. That included telling the president that the CIA's concerns were backed by the State Department's conclusion that "the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are highly dubious." For her part, Rice has tried to fend off controversy by claiming ignorance. On "Meet the Press" in June, Rice claimed, "We did not know at the time - no one knew at the time, in our circles - maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery." On Friday, Rice admitted that she had known the State Department intelligence unit "was the one that within the overall intelligence estimate had objected to that sentence" and that Secretary of State Colin Powell had refused to use the Niger document in his presentation to the U.N. because of what she described as long-standing concerns about its credibility. But Rice also knew the case for bypassing U.N. inspections and invading Iraq required demonstrating an imminent threat. The terrifying charge that Iraq was hellbent on developing nuclear weapons would do the trick nicely. However, with the discrediting of the Niger buy and the equally dubious citation of a purchase of aluminum tubes (which turned out to be inappropriate for the production of enriched uranium), one can imagine the disappointment at the White House. There was no evidence for painting Saddam Hussein as a nuclear threat. The proper reaction should have been to support the U.N. inspectors in doing their work in an efficient and timely fashion. We now know, and perhaps the White House knew then, that the inspectors eventually would come up empty-handed because no weapons of mass destruction program existed - not even a stray vial of chemical and biological weapons has been discovered. However, that would have obviated the administration's key rationale for an invasion, so lies substituted for facts that didn't exist. And there, dear readers, exists the firm basis for bringing a charge of impeachment against the president who employed lies to lead us into war.
Democrat Eyes Potential Grounds for Bush ImpeachmentThu Jul 17, 2003By John Milne CONCORD, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham said on Thursday there were grounds to impeach President Bush if he was found to have led America to war under false pretenses. While Graham did not call for Bush's impeachment, he said if the president lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq it would be "more serious" than former President Bill Clinton's lie under oath about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. "If in fact we went to war under false pretenses that is a very serious charge," Graham, the senior U.S. senator from Florida, told reporters in New Hampshire. "If the standard of impeachment is the one the House Republicans used against Bill Clinton, this clearly comes within that standard," he said.Democrats and some Republicans have raised questions about the unsubstantiated claim Bush made in his January State of the Union speech that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa in its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.Graham's comments came as reporters followed up on his remarks earlier this week that any deception by Bush over Iraq might rise to the standard of an impeachable offense -- as defined by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives when it voted to impeach Clinton.Clinton was ultimately cleared by the U.S. Senate after being impeached by the House.After his appearance in New Hampshire, Graham issued a statement saying he was not calling for Bush's impeachment and saw the issue as a largely academic one, adding that if Bush had misled the American public he would pay the price for it in the 2004 presidential election.In Washington on Thursday, Bush told a news conference that the speech reference was based on "sound intelligence" and he was certain that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was trying to reconstitute his nuclear weapons program. "We won't be proven wrong," he said with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at his side.The flap over Iraq upstaged Graham's economic proposals. He said his plan would balance the federal budget within five years while providing middle-class tax relief and creating 3 million new jobs.His plan would repeal most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. It would reinstate a 38.6 percent tax bracket for wealthy individuals and create a new "millionaires tax bracket" at 40 percent. Graham also proposed cracking down on individuals and companies who transfer assets offshore or renounce U.S. citizenship to escape taxation.
http://news.independent.co.ukCheney Under Pressure To Quit Over False War EvidenceAnger Grows On Both Sides Of Atlantic At Misleading Claims On Eve Of Iraq ConflictBy Andrew Buncombe in Washington and Marie Woolf7-16-3Dick Cheney, the US Vice-President and the administration's most outspoken hawk over Iraq, faced demands for his resignation last night as he was accused of using false evidence to build the case for war. He was accused of using his office to insist that a false claim about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium from Africa to restart its nuclear programme be included in George Bush's State of the Union address - overriding the concerns of the CIA director, George Tenet. Mr Cheney was also accused of knowingly misleading Congress when the administration sought its authorisation for the use of force to oust Saddam Hussein. The allegations against Mr Cheney have come most vocally from a group of senior former intelligence officials who believe that information from the intelligence community was selectively used to support a war fought for political reasons. In an open letter to President George Bush, the group have asked that he demand Mr Cheney's resignation. As the clamour for a full inquest into the African uranium claims grew on both sides of the Atlantic, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was accused by MPs of lacking "credibility" after he admitted knowing a month before the war that documents making the assertion were forgeries. Mr Straw said in a statement he had known that letters given to the UN nuclear agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, about the Niger claim were fake as early as February. Mr Straw also claimed that the Government's case for military action was not based on "intelligence reports". Labour MPs, including Tam Dalyell, the father of the House, asked why Mr Straw had not told MPs that the documents were fake in advance of the vote to approve military action on 18 March. "He now says the Government knew it was a forgery in February. Why didn't he tell us before Parliament voted for war?" he said. "Also if the case for war is not based on intelligence, what is it based on?" Last night the Labour-dominated Foreign Affairs Committee asked Mr Straw to reveal what he knew about the Niger claim. Donald Anderson, the committee's chairman, wrote to Mr Straw asking him when the CIA first questioned the Niger connection, and why ministers had not admitted earlier that there were doubts about the claims. The committee also asked whether the CIA had questioned any other claims in the September dossier on Iraq's weapons. The letter, signed by 11 MPs of all parties, called on Mr Straw to confirm The Independent's report that technical documents and centrifuge parts found at the home of an Iraqi nuclear scientist in Baghdad had lain buried for 12 years. The letter also asked Mr Straw to reveal when he knew that the former US ambassador Joseph Wilson had found claims about Niger-Iraq links to be false. Last week the White House admitted that the claim that Iraq was seeking "significant quantities of uranium from Africa" - based on faked documents provided by the Italian intelligence services - should not have been included in President Bush's speech of 28 January. In Washington there is no conclusive proof that Mr Cheney was responsible for insisting that the claim be made in the speech. But there is clear evidence of Mr Cheney's interest in the alleged Niger deal. Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador, said he was asked by the CIA to go to Niger and investigate the claim in a request from the Vice-President's office. Mr Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, has admitted that during a briefing from the CIA "the Vice-President asked a question about the implication of the report". There have been reports from CIA officials that in the months before the war Mr Cheney made a "multiple number" of personal visits to its headquarters in Virginia to meet officials analysing intelligence relating to Iraq. "[He] sent signals, intended or otherwise, that a certain output was desired from here," one senior CIA official told reporters. The CIA director, Mr Tenet, said he accepted responsibility for approving the speech but said his officers had only "concurred" with White House officials that by naming the British Government as the source of the Niger claim it was "factually correct". Britain has stood by the claim, saying it has evidence in addition to the Italian documents.
HUFFINGTON: Bush's Mis-State-Ment Of The Union FiascoBy Arianna Huffington, AlterNetJuly 16, 2003Poor Karl Rove: He spends close to two years meticulously staging photo ops and carefully crafting sound bites to create the image of President Bush as a take-charge, man-the-controls, land-the-jet-on-the-deck-of-the-aircraft carrier, "Bring 'em on" kind of leader. But now the latest revelations about the Misstatement of the Union fiasco are threatening to bring back the old notion of W as a bumbling, detached figurehead-in-chief. And it's the president's own people who are painting this unflattering portrait. Take George Tenet: While robotically impaling himself on his sword, the CIA director took great pains to point out that he thought so little of the Niger/Saddam uranium connection that he and his deputies refused to bring it up in congressional briefings as far back as fall 2002. It just didn't meet his standards. Same with Colin Powell. The Secretary went on at great length about the intense vetting process - "four days and three nights" locked up with the leaders of the CIA, working "until midnight, 1 o'clock every morning," going over "every single thing we knew about all of the various issues with respect to weapons of mass destruction" - that went into deciding what information would be used in his United Nations presentation. A presentation that ultimately did not include the Niger allegation because it was not, in Powell's words "standing the test of time." Hmmm, just how hard is that test? Powell's UN speech came a mere eight days after Bush's State of the Union - leaving one to wonder what the expiration date is on patently phony data? About a week after a president uses it, it turns out. So here's the picture we're left with: When faced with using explosive but highly questionable charges in vital presentations leading up to a possible preemptive war, both Powell and Tenet gave the information they were handed a thorough going over before ultimately rejecting it. But not the commander in chief. Apparently, he just took whatever he was handed, and happily offered it up to the world. He was, therefore, little more than the guy in the presidential suit, mindlessly speaking the words that others had debated and polished and twisted and finally agreed he would say. And then when the uranium hit the fan, our stand-up-guy president decided that the buck actually stops with George Tenet. As the Niger controversy - Yellowcake-gate - is turning into a political firestorm, the question should be: What didn't the president know - and why didn't he know it? And why does he know less and less every day? After all, it's becoming clearer by the day that just about everyone else involved knew that the president was using a bogus charge to alarm the nation about Saddam's nuclear threat. Whatever the opposite of "top secret" is, this was it. The U.S. ambassador to Niger, Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, knew: She had sent reports to Washington debunking the allegations. Joe Wilson, the envoy sent to Niger by the CIA, knew: His fact-finding trip quickly confirmed the ambassador's findings. The CIA knew: The agency tried unsuccessfully in September 2002 to convince the Brits to take the false charge out of an intelligence report. The State Department knew: Its Bureau of Intelligence and Research labeled it "highly dubious." Tenet and Powell knew: They refused to use it. The president's speechwriters knew: They were told to remove a reference to the Niger uranium in a speech the president delivered in Cincinnati on Oct. 7 - three months before his State of the Union. And the National Security Council knew: NSC staff played a key role in the decision to fudge the truth by having the president source the uranium story to British intelligence. The bottom line is: This canard had been thoroughly discredited many, many times over, but the administration fanatics so badly wanted it to be true they just refused to let it die the death it deserved. The yellowcake lie was like one of those slasher movie psychos that refuse to stay buried no matter how many times you smash a hatchet into their skull. It had more sequels than "Friday the 13th" and "Halloween" combined. Cherry-picking convenient lies about something as important as nuclear war is bad enough but the administration's attempts to spin the aftershocks have been even worse. They just don't seem to grasp the concept that when you're sending American soldiers to die for something the reasons you give - all of the reasons - should be true.Instead of a sword for Mr. Tenet, somebody should get this bunch a copy of "All the President's Men." The slow drip, drip, drip of incremental revelations and long-overdue admissions is not the way to stem a brewing scandal.Condoleezza Rice has been the worst offender. Now that we know that Tenet personally warned Rice's deputy, Steve Hadley, not to use the yellowcake claim back in October, and the role NSC staffers played in manipulating the State of the Union, Rice's widely publicized claim, made little over a month ago, that at the time of the State of the Union, "maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery" has been revealed for what it is: A bald-face lie.And even now as the truth comes flooding out, Rice continues to play fast and loose with the facts - and stand by her man. "The statement that he made," she said on Sunday, speaking of the president, "was indeed accurate. The British government did say that."Joining the still-don't-get-it unit were Don "Haldeman" Rumsfeld, who termed the president's speech "technically correct," and Ari "Ehrlichman" Fleischer who offered up this classic bit of spinsanity: "What we have said is it should not have risen to the level of a presidential speech. People cannot conclude that the information was necessarily false."Watergate gave us the non-denial denial. Yellowcake-gate is giving us the non-admission admission.And that's not the only parallel. In July 1973, at the height of the Watergate hearings, Richard Nixon announced: "What we were elected to do, we are going to do, and let others wallow in Watergate." George Bush seems to be taking the same head-in-the-sand approach, letting it be known that, with Tenet taking responsibility for the Niger snafu, he considers the matter closed. "The president has moved on," said Fleischer over the weekend. "And I think, frankly, much of the country has moved on as well." Let others wallow in Yellowcake-gate, right, Ari? But wishing doesn't make it so, either for phantom uranium transfers or the evaporation of skepticism.In the spirit of Tricky Dick, let me make myself perfectly clear: I'm not saying that Yellowcake-gate is the equivalent of Watergate. I'm saying it's potentially much, much worse.At its core, Watergate was all about trying to make sure that Nixon won an election. Yellowcake-gate is much more than a dirty trick played on the American public. It's about the Bush administration's pattern of deception as it pushed and shoved this country into a preemptive war - from the much-advertised but nonexistent links between Iraq and al-Qaeda to the sexing-up of Saddam's WMD.No one died as a result of Watergate, but more than 200 American soldiers have been killed and thousand more wounded to rid the world of an imminent threat that wasn't. To say nothing of the countless Iraqis who have lost their lives. And those numbers will only rise as we find ourselves stuck in a situation Gen. Tommy Franks predicts will continue for at least another four years. With the events of the last week, George Bush has come across as very presidential indeed. Like his Dad, he's been out of the loop; like Clinton he's become a world class word weasel; and like Nixon he's shown a massive propensity for secrecy and dissembling. Not exactly the role models Karl Rove had in mind. President Clinton was impeached for seven words he should never have uttered: "I never had sex with that woman." What price will President Bush have to pay for his sixteen-word scam?Arianna Huffington is the author of "Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America."

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