First my comments then a very interesting history.
Ah monogamy, that Utopian ideal that causes so much misery. Where do we get this idea that we should only have one and only one partner for life? Not only is it selfish on our part but repressive to the other partner.
Now I'm not saying a lifetime partner is a bad thing, I wholly encourage it, but they should be open enough for each to have an occasional sexual experience with an outsider. It releases pent-up sexual tension and the accompanying frustration. Forcefully repressing natural urges only leads to one despising the other and eventually conflict. Sexual freedom should be encouraged and enjoyed. A variety of partners is wholesome and essential to individual identity.
Now I'm not saying every relationship should be wide open with thousands of anonymous partners. I just think that the contrived 'one man one woman' ideal should be left up to those involved. One should not be raised nor taught to expect the completely unrealistic promise of fidelity, nor should it be the only standard by which we consider a relationship successful. So many wonderful pairings are torn apart because one partner "cheated" on the other. How stupid.
Especially here in America we have this so called 'trust' issue. Who invented that idea. It's pure psycho-babble hogwash. "You cheated on me, I can never trust you again, I want a divorce!" How pathetic is that. So grown-up. Work it out, it's not the end of the world. YOU ARE NOT THAT SPECIAL. GET OVER YOURSELF. Learn the difference between love and sex already.
Only in America with our grandiose, it's all about ME & MY feelings and unrealistic expectations does the discovery of marital infidelity inevitably lead to drawn-out scenes filled with drama, apology, contrition and oddly the detailed recitation of each liaison. Sadly it's the children that suffer. Having to watch so called 'grown-ups' displaying childish behaviour: yelling, screaming, door-slamming, name calling, hitting & shoving. Then the parents play mind games on the kids, picking sides, playing one against the other. No wonder kids these days are screwed up emotionally. Just watch the Jerry Springer show to see what's really going on in America.
In most other countries they aren't so uptight. Martial fidelity isn't such a big deal. In Holland they say "going strange", Ireland "playing offsides", 40 percent of Russians see infidelity as harmless! Japanese woman aren't so much as upset by the act itself but the lack of discretion shown so that she learns about it! In Indonesia they refer to the couple as having a "wonderful interval". Now that's a healthy attitude!
Of course it's just reinforced by the terms we use in America: Unfaithful, Infidelity, Cheating, Sneaking Around, Down Low, Double-crossing. All derogatory. Notice the first two, the 'socially accepted' terms (no pun intended) are not surprisingly religiously inspired. The others all conjure up sleazy, dirty or criminal intent.
It all has to do once again (surprise!) with the fricken church saying whats right and wrong. Reinforced through popular culture and our upbringing. Beginning with toddlers and the silly fairy tales we read to them, prince meets princess and live happily ever after. White picket fences and White Weddings. Books and movies sympathize with the faithful wife while portraying the other woman (or man) as a harlot, slut, homewrecker! Only sex within marriage is considered proper and holy. Adultery is condemned, at one time by death to one or both involved.
While I can see the benefits of the nuclear family ideal in past cultures, we are mature enough now as a species (well some of us are) to rid ourselves of the guilt and needless shame associated with the natural urge to 'spread it around' and enjoy the gift of sex. Girls are told to wait for marriage, for the right one to come along. While sampling the local flavor beforehand just might produce longer lasting and happier marriages.
I could go on and on about the stupidity of this approach but let's look at a brief history and false arguments of IMPOSED MONOGAMY, which as we shall see all comes down to power and money.
The following has been condensed from http://www.patriarchywebsite.com/monogamy/mono-history.htm which ironically is some minister arguing for polygamy. Guess he's not happy with the one he's got, god bless him (wink). I took out most of the 'preachy' stuff, but his essay is right on the money. Just remember when you read Roman think Pagan (monogamy equals pagan goddess worship).
MONOGAMY IS AS OLD AS ADAM
Some say monogamy is as old as Adam. But that’s not the real issue. From the beginning, through the generations, even to this day, monogamy, polygamy, platonic and celibacy are known forms of marital status, and of course rising up strong is "homogamy", the old time abhorred practice of homosexuality which is once again fighting for recognition and acceptance. What is in question here is how and when monogamy began to be imposed as the only right form of marriage acceptable to society.
MONOGAMY AND SHOULD-BE MONOGAMY
The practice of faithful monogamy stipulates that a man can marry only one wife at any one time in his life. Even though the various forms of marriages have been practiced through the generations, monogamy has emerged to become law in some countries today, such that the legal registration of more than one wife become a violation. This is called "Should-be" or "must-be" monogamy.
The first instances of such widespread enforcement were in Western Europe and it eventually gained worldwide acceptance in the modern world, especially in the Western Hemisphere. How did it happen? More so, how did it become known as the only acceptable standard when so many of the Bible’s founding patriarchs were openly polygamous? The answer of course would be one of greatest concern to Christians. And it will be an interesting but a very tragic one.
SOME HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
We have to look at some other related history first. The Roman system was an empire built on conquest with incorporation. The secret of Rome's strength lie in her ability to incorporate vanquished nations into her own political body. Never before had so many people been brought under one government without making slaves of most of them. Gradually the Roman Empire became permeated with the philosophy of the Greeks and the religions of the Jews and Christians. The natural part of human life was raised to a higher plane.
THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE ROMAN CHURCH
Christianity became known as the official western religion, and the native religions of the western world became known as heathen - uncivilized and unenlightened. However it was not so in the beginning. It may be a surprise for many to know that during the first 3 centuries, the Christians suffered tremendously under the Roman government which tried to destroy them. However, Christianity was spreading too vigorously to be kept under control. The strategy of elimination through persecution eventually changed to one of embracing it and controlling its destiny to fulfill the purpose of their rulers.
The church on the other hand made a compromise to accept Rome and became the destroyer of her mother (Israel) who bore her. In the process, truth suffered. Biblical commandments that the Apostles taught were subordinated to pagan convenience. The church entered into apostasy. This was fully realized in the 4th century when Emperor Constantine the Great declared himself a Christian, the first pope and the ruler of the church.
One after another, the unscrupulous entered the Church to take control, ravish and strip the Church to total spiritual nakedness and bankruptcy, and then clothed her in mockery and strange garments. Greco-Roman ideologies, values and pagan practices and rituals were adopted as standards and holiness in the Church. The Christian Jews who had understanding of God’s truths refused to toe the line. As a result, they were denounced as traitors, betrayers and murderers of the Lord. The wolves now had a totally free hand, this time in the Name of God. This is the background and setting for the origin and history of the "must-be" monogamy theology.
CATHOLIC PRIESTS WERE MONOGAMOUS AND POLYGAMOUS BUT MADE CELIBATE
Due to the widespread illiteracy of the scriptures, whatever the Catholic priests said were considered as God’s Law and divine truths. One area of total distortion was that of marital relationship. It was common for Catholic priests to have multiple wives and mistresses. In 726AD, it was acceptable for a man with a sick wife to take a second wife so long as he looked after the first one. With concerns for protecting Church property from inheritance however, offspring could not inherit church property and it was later declared that all sons of priests were illegitimate. In 1022, Pope Benedict VIII banned marriages for priests (monogamous or polygamous). Finally in 1139, Pope Innocent II voided all marriages of priests and all new priests had to divorce their wives. All these were done to possess and protect money and church property. Making polygamy a sin and marriage unacceptable for a priest was a slow and purposeful process.
CELIBACY AND ASCETICISM PROPAGATED AS HOLINESS
Backing up this hidden agenda, was an anti-human Greek doctrine and the hatred of Satan, manifested as holiness against all human nature and passions. It is called asceticism; the paganistic teaching that to be spiritual is to be poor, thus sex and all human passions would have to be denied for the highest fulfillment found only in monastic lifestyle. This distorted view of human passions and sexuality put a terrible burden on the shoulders of all who wanted to be spiritual. Worse still, it became the root and the source of much more other lies and deception regarding holiness and marriage forms in the whole Christian world.
Celibacy was propagated as the new standard of high attainment in holiness. Sex was taken to be unclean and sinful. Marriages were painted, at best as being a necessary evil to guard against sexual sins such as fornication. Because of such a heathen belief, monks and nuns were considered holier and closer to God than anybody else, and priests would necessarily be celibates. Marriage was considered an activity of the flesh, if possible, to be avoided by those seeking spirituality. Thus monogamy would be tolerated as an acceptable norm among the "less spiritual" and polygamy would be condemned as an abomination. Clearly, Greek philosophy and Roman monogamy were in control of the entire Church.
ROMANS WERE NOTORIOUSLY MONOGAMOUS
Christianity was strongly and aggressively propagated from the Roman Empire into the West and thus came to be known as a western religion. It should be noted that the Romans were notoriously monogamous due to an inherent exclusivity (which we shall discuss later) in monogamy. These are some of the practices and enforcement, even on their own monarchs and nobles. Nero, the Caesar who divorced, banished and murdered his first wife in order to marry the second. Even Napoleon who crowned himself could not overthrow this law, and had to divorce his beloved wife, Josephine in order to marry another so as to yield a son. Such facts and examples are clearly evident in European history. Yet were the Romans truly monogamous? History tells us that in the Roman Empire and in medieval Christendom, though marriage was monogamous, mating was often polygynous. A lord of a manor would have one wife but his household was set up as an unofficial harem of servant girls.
MONOGAMY PROPAGATED THROUGH CHRISTIANITY AND WESTERN SUPREMACY
Thus we see how Christianity was corrupted with to the point of being almost totally heathen, bowing down to saints and angels, paying for salvation with money and penance. Despite reformations and revivals in the 15th century that challenged and overthrew the ritualistic corruption, Greco-Roman values and interpretation of the Bible are still very much in the Christian lifestyle. This includes enforced monogamy, the Roman (pagan) form of idolizing woman and the goddesses. Christianity today is still very much Romanized where monogamy is Law rather than being Hebraic in nature where polygamy was well accepted in the sight of God and man. By renouncing the Jews, the ways of the patriarchal fathers and their ways were also renounced, thus so was Biblical polygamy. This is a big mistake of the early Church. And because the reformed Church did not thoroughly cleanse herself from Romanism, Biblical patriarchy was only partially restored and polygamy is still considered an abomination. The Church is still arrogant and piteously far from returning to her Hebraic Roots. She can, but only through much trials and tribulations before she is willing to let go of her sacred should-be monogamy calf.
MARTIN LUTHER CHALLENGED SHOULD-BE MONOGAMY
For political purposes, a young Prince Philip was arranged to marry the daughter of Duke George. This unhappy union led him to several affairs, for which he felt so condemned that he refrained from the Lord’s supper. He could have easily annulled his marriage through the Roman Catholic Church, which was a common procedure that would not have caused the slightest comment. But being an avowed Lutheran, he refused to consider this way out but instead considered to keep his first wife and marry another woman, a charming 17 year old Margaret. After winning the girl’s approval, he approached her mother who said, "We must not break God’s laws!" Martin Luther was consulted. After much consideration, a letter was signed and approval given, but he was told to keep it a secret. Philip lived with his 2 wives and had children through them. Soon the secret leaked out and the Reformation was placed in severe jeopardy. Because the penalty for bigamy was death, Prince Philip was forced to prostrate himself before Emperor Charles V and beg for his forgiveness. The irony of it all was that the emperor himself had illegitimate children all over Europe and the pope had legitimatized each one in order that they all might inherit titles and attain high office.
THE POWER BEHIND THE SHOULD-BE MONOGAMY
Roman monogamy was portrayed as God’s only divine standard. Luther could not change it. There were too much to undo. But because the major part of the world is still unchristianized, there are actually much more societies of the world that are polygamous than monogamous. The spirit behind the corrupt Romans still continues, out living the Roman Empire, and is manifesting itself, not just in the religious system but also in the supremacy of Western culture, economy and technology. Thus the ambition to conquer the world did not die with the Roman Empire, but continues into the supremacy of the Western world. It is now in the Greco-Roman Worldview that is fast taking over the world.
MONOGAMY AND THE MODERN WORLD
"Should-be" monogamy never gained worldwide attention until the last few centuries. The should-be monogamy idea was not popular in previous generations, not until its strong uprising in the last 150 years or so. In fact, polygamy was still openly practiced in the last generation in non-western countries, and is today still practiced in modern societies, even though not so openly because of the outcry of the Western Feminism movement. How quickly the should-be monogamy concept has taken over, such that it makes polygamy appear sinful and wrong ever since the beginning. A worldwide ethnographic survey of 849 human societies show 708 whose customs are polygynous (more than 1 wife), 4 polyandrous (more than 1 husband) and 137 monogamous. Other than the religious and supremacy factors, there can be a few other reasons for this.
MONOGAMY AND FEMINISM
The next reason is that during the last war torn period and after, polygamy was badly abused by irresponsible men who had made it appear evil. The restoration of women’s dignity and respect, giving them their "rightful liberation" and equality had automatically promoted monogamy to be the only right form of marriage, and polygamy since then was declared abusive and unworthy of a good respectable marriage. Supported by the deceived Church as good teaching and declared as the only right way of marriage, this "truth" becomes law, not just among Catholics and Protestants, but also in modern societies.
THE APPEAL OF MONOGAMY – EXCLUSIVENESS OF ROMANISM
Another reason for the quick popularity of monogamy lies in the exclusive nature of the should-be monogamy form that is extremely appealing. But what exactly is the exclusive nature of this modern monogamy form? Romantic love means finding a soul mate – someone whose values and sense of life mirror our own. We feel a drive to organize our life around this person and no one else. If someone says, ‘I love you’ in a romantic context, this what they are understood to be saying. This seems a good modern notion of romantic monogamy that we would all readily accept. It has the good intention of bringing responsibility back into the decaying society. But it has also given us some other unintended insights.
In real modern day practice, monogamy is but the exaltation of free love and the justification of self-love. Possessiveness is not only condoned, but glorified. That’s why it is so appealing. It readily satisfies the inner desire of a woman to possess her man exclusively, and the inner need of a man to please and idolize his woman completely above all other things, to be completely engrossed in her only. A candlelight dinner never fails to portray a very romantic moment. We say, "Oh! How romantic!". But how awfully unromantic it will be if another party is involved. For should-be monogamy to work, the elements of romantic exclusiveness must be involved. I am not saying that candlelight dinners and privacy are bad. But essentially, this reveal that the elements of the Roman spirit are nothing but exclusivity, possessiveness and idolatry. And such elements are perpetuated as dominant factors into all aspects of modern life of the should-be monogamy culture and this is where the failings begin. The two persons involved finally imprison one another, thus marriages of such kind are open to destruction.
We know by now that for sure, the origin of the should-be monogamy was not Biblical as assumed by many. It’s definitely not from the biblical patriarchal fathers, as many of them were polygamous. It really was from Rome. Although in Western Europe, the idea of romantic love (in some sense) has had a long history, its acceptance as the proper basis of marriage has never been as widespread as it has been in America culture. Why the United States? The answer, at least in part, is philosophical. What was distinctive about the American outlook and represented a radical break with its European past were its unprecedented commitment to political freedom, its individualism, its doctrine of individual rights, and, more specifically, its belief in a person’s right to happiness here on earth. Both the individualism and the secularism of this country were essential for the idea of romantic love to take wide cultural root. It’s now crystal clear where should-be monogamy originated and why it is so appealing to the human self. Historically, the Romans were known to be highly monogamous but kept mistresses and abused their maids and slaves, and were also known to be very sadistic in sports and love making. And we know in part, this characteristic has found its place in modern society.
This historical observation and social deduction are not wrong, for we can also see throughout the world that the more affluent, self-sufficient, self-centered, secular and individualistic the people are, the more romantically inclined and monogamous the society is. Should-be monogamy as righteousness is hollow, a placebo, a false consolation and a false truth for the self-seekers and the uninformed.
MONOGAMY AND ROMANTIC
Even the word, Roman-tic tells us where should-be monogamy is from, the Roman culture and the Roman Empire which is Western Europe, where values contradict biblical standards. And we can be so blind as not to see it before our eyes when we read the word Roman-tic, and yet we expound and exalt it at every wedding and declared it as holiness at every pulpit!
MONOGAMY AND PROTESTANTISM
What about the Protestant world? With America drinking it all in and taking the lead, "civilized" nations swallowed the Romans’ doctrine of love, digested it into her religious system, namely Christianity, and exported it with the Gospel as a total package for living. Alas, wherever the Gospel went, the whole package was received and swallowed without question as total Gospel truth. Thus the true Biblical Gospel which God has ordained to be rooted in the Middle Eastern patriarchal culture is deceptively suppressed and replaced with one that is adulterated by a heathen Roman culture. In the Biblical patriarchal setting of our forefathers polygamy was not just tolerated, but accepted. But the western Gospel is romantically and not patriarchally inclined, thus it is actually not just anti-polygamy but also anti-patriarchy. This is why the Old Testament seems to contain many passages of polygamy and patriarchy that cannot be expounded by western Protestant Christianity.
THE CONCLUSION
History brings forth a conclusive evidence. The enforced should-be monogamy, no matter how much it is sanctioned legally or socially, or how righteous it is portrayed religiously, it was never originated from the Scriptures, and has never been set as the only standard for marriage by God. It originated from the pagan Romans that had and are still overtaking the world under the modern title, Greco Roman Worldview.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Friday, May 18, 2007
JUMPING SKIPPING CURSOR PROBLEM SOLVED!
This is the first windows annoyance problem I have resolved on my own. And I figured it out for myself. No answers but stupid ones through a thousand searches.
If you have recently upgraded to VISTA on your laptop and a cursor that seems to have a mind of it's own, it seems to jump or skip around as you type, randomly replacing what you have typed. I have finally found the answer! The only answer on the web at this time!
I searched for a long time trying to figure out why my cursor kept jumping all over the place. It annoyed the hell out of me.
All answers to the question available said stupid stuff like clean your mouse, or use a mousepad. STUPID! I'm typing, not using my mouse. It's the cursor not the pointer I was having a problem with! besides It's optical, no grime on the wheel, no hairs on the laser light. I have a USB Targus laptop mouse and recently upgraded to VISTA on my Gateway NX560XL although I think it was misbehaving before.
YOUR PROBLEM IS ABOUT TO BE RESOLVED!
Problem: Microsoft uses the generic PS2 mouse driver for your Touchpad! It also loads a USB mouse driver once it is detected. Somehow the 2 mouse drivers combined with no specific touchpad driver seems to be the culprit.
Solution: First go to your computers manufacturers website, search by your model number or just search the driver downloads for "Touchpad". My search came back with "D20023-002-001.exe - Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit) Touchpad Driver Version: Synaptics 9.1.3.0" (yours may be different) Download the file. Don't install it just yet. You need to remove the generic PS2 mouse driver. Go to Control Panel, Device Manager, find the mouse section, you should see 2 drivers, one PS2 and antoher for the USB mouse. Uninstall the PS2 driver. Don't reboot or it'll just reinstall the driver. Then run the downloaded Touchpad program and follow the instructions to install (check the readme file). Once installed, reboot. You should now have a touchpad icon in your system tray (lower right) (looks like a grey rectangle with two little buttons underneath). Try typing something in notepad or whatever and your problem should have vanished. I typed this whole blog without one skip, jump or interruption!!!! What a relief.
Bonus solution: Disabling the touchpad altogether! Right click and select properties, you can now disable the touchpad which you could not do before using the generic driver as it wasn't an option. Yahoo!
You can thank me by linking to my blog, clicking on ads, checking my store, etc. Thanks and you're welcome!
If you have recently upgraded to VISTA on your laptop and a cursor that seems to have a mind of it's own, it seems to jump or skip around as you type, randomly replacing what you have typed. I have finally found the answer! The only answer on the web at this time!
I searched for a long time trying to figure out why my cursor kept jumping all over the place. It annoyed the hell out of me.
All answers to the question available said stupid stuff like clean your mouse, or use a mousepad. STUPID! I'm typing, not using my mouse. It's the cursor not the pointer I was having a problem with! besides It's optical, no grime on the wheel, no hairs on the laser light. I have a USB Targus laptop mouse and recently upgraded to VISTA on my Gateway NX560XL although I think it was misbehaving before.
YOUR PROBLEM IS ABOUT TO BE RESOLVED!
Problem: Microsoft uses the generic PS2 mouse driver for your Touchpad! It also loads a USB mouse driver once it is detected. Somehow the 2 mouse drivers combined with no specific touchpad driver seems to be the culprit.
Solution: First go to your computers manufacturers website, search by your model number or just search the driver downloads for "Touchpad". My search came back with "D20023-002-001.exe - Windows Vista (32-bit or 64-bit) Touchpad Driver Version: Synaptics 9.1.3.0" (yours may be different) Download the file. Don't install it just yet. You need to remove the generic PS2 mouse driver. Go to Control Panel, Device Manager, find the mouse section, you should see 2 drivers, one PS2 and antoher for the USB mouse. Uninstall the PS2 driver. Don't reboot or it'll just reinstall the driver. Then run the downloaded Touchpad program and follow the instructions to install (check the readme file). Once installed, reboot. You should now have a touchpad icon in your system tray (lower right) (looks like a grey rectangle with two little buttons underneath). Try typing something in notepad or whatever and your problem should have vanished. I typed this whole blog without one skip, jump or interruption!!!! What a relief.
Bonus solution: Disabling the touchpad altogether! Right click and select properties, you can now disable the touchpad which you could not do before using the generic driver as it wasn't an option. Yahoo!
You can thank me by linking to my blog, clicking on ads, checking my store, etc. Thanks and you're welcome!
POPE SCOLDS THE BRAZILIANS
His evilness visited his flock in Brazil recently. With well deserved admonishments and just a little little touch of history revisionism to boot. The following is a newspaper account, with my comments in CAPS...
The 80-year-old Pope railed against premarital sex, abortion rights and the rise of Pentecostalism during his five days in Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic country. THE VATICAN MUST COLLECT EVERY DOLLAR, WE CAN NOT SHARE WITH OTHER FAITHS. PREMARITAL SEX? IT'S OK IF MY REPRESSED PRIESTS SEXUALLY MOLEST YOUR CHILDREN AND MAIDENS. WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING.
Benedict also defended the church's campaign centuries ago to Christianize indigenous people, saying Latin American Indians had been "silently longing" to become Christians when Spanish and Portuguese conquerors violently took over their native lands centuries ago. SILENTLY LONGING??? HELL THEY WERE MINDING THEIR OWN BUSINESS TILL YOUR GENTLE CONQUISTADORS CAME ALONG AND FORCEFULLY INSISTED, WHILE EFFICIENTLY EMPTYING THEIR TREASURIES OF GOLD. THIS IS KNOWN AS DOUBLE SPEAK. OR IF YOU KEEP REPEATING THE SAME LIE PEOPLE WILL EVENTUALLY BELIEVE YOU. BULLSHIT MON POPE. SEE MY BLOG ON MISSIONARIES.
"In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture," he told the bishops. NO, NO ALIENATION JUST THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF IT.
Many Indian groups believe the conquest brought them enslavement and genocide. 'BELIEVE'... BEING AN IRONIC CHOICE OF WORDS. 'CONVINCED' WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER WORD.
Pope Benedict decried the growing gap between rich and poor in Latin America but told priests to stay out of politics even as they fought for social justice. SHAME ON YOU FOR BEING POOR, PLEASE HAVE MORE CHILDREN, OH AND PASS THE PLATE PLEASE ;-)
According to local church officials here, the pope seemed to acknowledge that influence during his speeches. He described the poor as the "privileged audience for the Gospel." PRIVILEGED MY ASS, CAPTIVE AUDIENCE IS MORE TRUTHFUL. THE POOR HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, of Aymara Indian heritage, also sparred with local church officials last year when his government proposed replacing Catholic religious instruction in public schools with a program that included indigenous spiritual beliefs. The Bolivian government eventually withdrew the plan in what it said was an amicable agreement with the church. AMICABLE...HA! DROP IT OR YOU'RE CONDEMNED TO HELL YOU HEATHENS!
Benedict addressed such efforts to revive pre-Colombian religions during his speech to the bishops, saying that the introduction of Christianity to the region 500 years ago built upon existing cultures to create something new. Trying to separate that now would represent a "step backward," he asserted. ONE STEP BACKWARD, BUT TWO STEPS FORWARD! WHAT GAUL. THIS MAN HAS NO CONSCIENCE.
Pope said the failures of the past century can be blamed on a blind reliance on economic models. "A society in which God is absent will not find the necessary consensus on moral values or the strength to live according to the model of these values, even when they are in conflict with private interests," he said. HOGWASH WE'D BE BETTER OFF WITHOUT IT.
The pope called the region the "continent of hope" during a Sunday Mass before 150,000 faithful in front of the mammoth basilica of Aparecida home to the nation's patron saint, a black Virgin Mary. HOPING TO GET RID OF CATHOLICISM I'D HOPE. 'EXCUSE ME POOR PRIEST, IS THAT A BLACK VIRGIN MARY?...NEXT TIME I COME TO VISIT IT'D BETTER BE WHITE WITH BLOND HAIR!"
HERE'S THE INFALLIBLE POPE AD NAUSEUM...
"For them, it meant knowing and welcoming Christ, the unknown God whom their ancestors were seeking, without realizing it, in their rich religious traditions. Christ is the Saviour for whom they were silently longing. It also meant that they received, in the waters of Baptism, the divine life that made them children of God by adoption; moreover, they received the Holy Spirit who came to make their cultures fruitful, purifying them and developing the numerous seeds that the incarnate Word had planted in them, thereby guiding them along the paths of the Gospel. In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture. Authentic cultures are not closed in upon themselves, nor are they set in stone at a particular point in history, but they are open, or better still, they are seeking an encounter with other cultures, hoping to reach universality through encounter and dialogue with other ways of life and with elements that can lead to a new synthesis, in which the diversity of expressions is always respected as well as the diversity of their particular cultural embodiment.
*************
As I conclude my stay among you, I wish to invoke the protection of the Mother of God and Mother of the Church on you and on the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean. I beseech Our Lady in particular, under the title of Guadalupe, Patroness of America, and under the title of Aparecida, Patroness of Brazil, to accompany you in your exciting and demanding pastoral task. To her I entrust the People of God at this stage of the third Christian millennium. I also ask her to guide the deliberations and reflections of this General Conference and I ask her to bless with copious gifts the beloved peoples of this Continent.
*************
WHY IS HE ASKING MARY FOR ANYTHING? LAST I CHECKED IT WAS EITHER JESUS OR THE BIG CHEESE THAT WAS TO BE PRAYED TO. OOPS HE FORGOT THEY REPLACED GODDESS WORSHIP AND THAT WAS A FREUDIAN SLIP. ACTUALLY THE VATICAN ALWAYS TAILORS THE MESSAGE TO THE AUDIENCE. TELL EM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR, WHATEVER AS LONG AS I GET MY TITHINGS.
The 80-year-old Pope railed against premarital sex, abortion rights and the rise of Pentecostalism during his five days in Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic country. THE VATICAN MUST COLLECT EVERY DOLLAR, WE CAN NOT SHARE WITH OTHER FAITHS. PREMARITAL SEX? IT'S OK IF MY REPRESSED PRIESTS SEXUALLY MOLEST YOUR CHILDREN AND MAIDENS. WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE DOING.
Benedict also defended the church's campaign centuries ago to Christianize indigenous people, saying Latin American Indians had been "silently longing" to become Christians when Spanish and Portuguese conquerors violently took over their native lands centuries ago. SILENTLY LONGING??? HELL THEY WERE MINDING THEIR OWN BUSINESS TILL YOUR GENTLE CONQUISTADORS CAME ALONG AND FORCEFULLY INSISTED, WHILE EFFICIENTLY EMPTYING THEIR TREASURIES OF GOLD. THIS IS KNOWN AS DOUBLE SPEAK. OR IF YOU KEEP REPEATING THE SAME LIE PEOPLE WILL EVENTUALLY BELIEVE YOU. BULLSHIT MON POPE. SEE MY BLOG ON MISSIONARIES.
"In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture," he told the bishops. NO, NO ALIENATION JUST THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF IT.
Many Indian groups believe the conquest brought them enslavement and genocide. 'BELIEVE'... BEING AN IRONIC CHOICE OF WORDS. 'CONVINCED' WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER WORD.
Pope Benedict decried the growing gap between rich and poor in Latin America but told priests to stay out of politics even as they fought for social justice. SHAME ON YOU FOR BEING POOR, PLEASE HAVE MORE CHILDREN, OH AND PASS THE PLATE PLEASE ;-)
According to local church officials here, the pope seemed to acknowledge that influence during his speeches. He described the poor as the "privileged audience for the Gospel." PRIVILEGED MY ASS, CAPTIVE AUDIENCE IS MORE TRUTHFUL. THE POOR HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, of Aymara Indian heritage, also sparred with local church officials last year when his government proposed replacing Catholic religious instruction in public schools with a program that included indigenous spiritual beliefs. The Bolivian government eventually withdrew the plan in what it said was an amicable agreement with the church. AMICABLE...HA! DROP IT OR YOU'RE CONDEMNED TO HELL YOU HEATHENS!
Benedict addressed such efforts to revive pre-Colombian religions during his speech to the bishops, saying that the introduction of Christianity to the region 500 years ago built upon existing cultures to create something new. Trying to separate that now would represent a "step backward," he asserted. ONE STEP BACKWARD, BUT TWO STEPS FORWARD! WHAT GAUL. THIS MAN HAS NO CONSCIENCE.
Pope said the failures of the past century can be blamed on a blind reliance on economic models. "A society in which God is absent will not find the necessary consensus on moral values or the strength to live according to the model of these values, even when they are in conflict with private interests," he said. HOGWASH WE'D BE BETTER OFF WITHOUT IT.
The pope called the region the "continent of hope" during a Sunday Mass before 150,000 faithful in front of the mammoth basilica of Aparecida home to the nation's patron saint, a black Virgin Mary. HOPING TO GET RID OF CATHOLICISM I'D HOPE. 'EXCUSE ME POOR PRIEST, IS THAT A BLACK VIRGIN MARY?...NEXT TIME I COME TO VISIT IT'D BETTER BE WHITE WITH BLOND HAIR!"
HERE'S THE INFALLIBLE POPE AD NAUSEUM...
"For them, it meant knowing and welcoming Christ, the unknown God whom their ancestors were seeking, without realizing it, in their rich religious traditions. Christ is the Saviour for whom they were silently longing. It also meant that they received, in the waters of Baptism, the divine life that made them children of God by adoption; moreover, they received the Holy Spirit who came to make their cultures fruitful, purifying them and developing the numerous seeds that the incarnate Word had planted in them, thereby guiding them along the paths of the Gospel. In effect, the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbus cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture. Authentic cultures are not closed in upon themselves, nor are they set in stone at a particular point in history, but they are open, or better still, they are seeking an encounter with other cultures, hoping to reach universality through encounter and dialogue with other ways of life and with elements that can lead to a new synthesis, in which the diversity of expressions is always respected as well as the diversity of their particular cultural embodiment.
*************
As I conclude my stay among you, I wish to invoke the protection of the Mother of God and Mother of the Church on you and on the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean. I beseech Our Lady in particular, under the title of Guadalupe, Patroness of America, and under the title of Aparecida, Patroness of Brazil, to accompany you in your exciting and demanding pastoral task. To her I entrust the People of God at this stage of the third Christian millennium. I also ask her to guide the deliberations and reflections of this General Conference and I ask her to bless with copious gifts the beloved peoples of this Continent.
*************
WHY IS HE ASKING MARY FOR ANYTHING? LAST I CHECKED IT WAS EITHER JESUS OR THE BIG CHEESE THAT WAS TO BE PRAYED TO. OOPS HE FORGOT THEY REPLACED GODDESS WORSHIP AND THAT WAS A FREUDIAN SLIP. ACTUALLY THE VATICAN ALWAYS TAILORS THE MESSAGE TO THE AUDIENCE. TELL EM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR, WHATEVER AS LONG AS I GET MY TITHINGS.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
1842 SPINSTERS PETITION FOR DIVORCE
Came across a wonderful petition by a bunch of spinsters circa 1842, railing against the church. It concerns the right to divorce but their church blasting is priceless. From the tone it sounds like all the good men were tied up in loveless marriages and these lonely 'spinsters' want laws changed to make divorce easier, so they can get their hands on a man. I have edited it for length, where you see "..." I have edited out either repetitions or wordy ramblings. I kept the best. Remeber now this is 1842! You go grrl!
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE SPINSTERS, TO THE LEGISLATURE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN SESSION ASSEMBLED.
By HYPATIA, AMANUENSIS FOR THE SPINSTERS.
PETITION.
Christian Marriage is the enemy of the natural union of the sexes.
The humble Petition, and earnest cry and prayer of that moiety of the women in these dominions, who are usually designated SPINSTERS, to the Legislature of Great Britain and Ireland, in Session assembled;—
HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That although your petitioners, from the natural timidity of the sex, approach you on this trying occasion with diffidence and feelings of alarm, yet, as their case involves some of the most important and inalienable rights of deeply injured humanity, they are imboldened to lay before you their wrongs and grievances, which call aloud for your interference and redress.
With a melancholy retrospect of the past, and hopeless foreboding of the future, the youthful amongst your petitioners see in prospect, the long array and dreary waste of days they are destined to spend in that languishing and ungenial state of celibacy, to which their equally abused sisterhood were, from the same cause, doomed in former ages; and it is with grief and despair that they now behold the yearly increasing numbers of the forlorn, down to the present time, when they form nearly two-thirds of all the women in these realms, between the ages of fourteen and seventy years.
In the present perverted condition of society, where it is usual to establish laws and customs so far in opposition to reason, as to supplant every thing natural, the arts of dissimulation, as they regard concealment of inherent feelings and propensities, are instilled into the female mind as the most essential part of education: every instinctive emotion however innocent,—every impulse however connected with health, must, under an assumed placidity and acquiescence, be suppressed as the height of sin and wickedness, though the fatal resistance exposes her to the maladies attendant on all such violations of the principle of animal existence; whilst the salutary disregard of this carefully cultivated hypocrisy, subjects her to all the odium which false delicacy and unnatural religion can invent. But so intolerable has female wretchedness now become in what is called civilized society, that the free expression thereof, together with its lamentable cause, shall no longer be prevented or concealed by fashion's irrational tyranny; and, therefore, your petitioners, stimulated by an assurance becoming fearless virtue, at once declare that the sole cause of their untoward and isolated condition, is the all-blasting marriage laws now in operation, which, having been rendered indissoluble through ecclesiastical usurpation, are now become the dread of all men possessing sound reflection, by whom they are shunned as the most direful pestilence of the social system. From this fell cause alone, and not from any prudish perverseness on their part (as God knows), your petitioners are doomed to that cheerless state of singleness which prevents them from fulfilling, in a lawful manner, the intentions of genial Nature, a predicament of all others the most abhorrent to that power.
Grounding their arguments on the palpable truths displayed both by fact and analogy, throughout the whole animal world; and denouncing all such conventional laws as have been palmed upon the credulity of society, under the false pretence of commands emanating from heaven, ... if the principles, propensities, and necessities, of the human species were duly considered, ... lessons of wisdom might be derived from the wise and faultless association of all other animals, amongst whom the union of the sexes is perfect, solely because it is not perpetual; where fidelity during frequently renewed marriage is inviolable,—the gallantry of the male towards the female admirable, and separation in due time mutually assented to, because highly proper and salutary. These are the dictates which spring from the innate principle, and constitutional elements of every thing that has life; but which, in the instance of man, have been thwarted and outraged by the atrocious laws of Christian matrimony; whereby silly and deluded mortals, in the sacrifice of their dearest liberty, have made themselves the outcasts of Nature; ... love constitutes the chief solace and enjoyment of all animals, man alone excepted, to him only, as the well-merited consequence of the gross and revolting violations of the benevolent impulse, it brings degradation and misery; for whenever the familiar intercourse of marriage ceases to be cemented by reciprocal affection, it becomes not only genuine prostitution, but the cause of it wherever it exists; all seduction being induced either by marriage or the dread of it. To the perpetuity of this tie alone, which is utterly abhorred by the universal mother of all existence, is to be attributed the thousand snares laid for female seduction, and its woful train of miseries; but these pass unpitied, and even unheeded, in this Christian country of boasted humanity.
When mankind are taught from infancy, to bend under the delusion of supernatural hopes and fears, and through, fallacious promises of another world, to give up their felicity in this, they are very easily led to trample upon all the rights and principles of their nature. When reduced to this abject state, it has ever been the wicked policy of corrupt legislators, in the nations of Christendom, to found their laws and institutions, not upon these principles and rights, though they alone form the proper basis of all social order and morality; but, on the contrary, to crush them, by taking into partnership the priesthoods of the various superstitions, pampering and abetting them in their incessant guileful practices against human liberty; and allowing them to usurp a mischievous interference and control in affairs purely civil; and the union of the sexes being unquestionably of that description, all agency or influence of priests should be wholly excluded in all its concerns and relations. Every particular marriage ought to be as different as any other species of bargain or contract; and as for the inconsistent absurdity of supposing, that parties who have the right to enter into this contract, at their mutual will and pleasure, have not an equal right to dissolve it for their reciprocal comfort and convenience, it is too hostile to human happiness to originate any where but in the Pandemonium of theological tyranny. To increase the gains and power of this all-pervading evil, the expedient was invented of calling down from heaven a commission, authorizing it to mix its life-lasting alloy in the simple union of the sexes, and to confound the civil contract with what is called a sacrament, or preternatural obligation, taken before a divine tribunal, as is ridiculously imagined, and not dissolvable but in death, or through the commission of a certain crime, which is thereby greatly promoted. Thus, by sacerdotal trammels, which are intrinsically grievous and degrading, has matrimony been rendered a snare, of all others the most sorrowful.
Your petitioners having shown that the evils they contemplate arise from a source inherently depraved,... solely owing to the perpetual gall of that yoke, which was first forged by the Christian priesthood, whose influence in this, as in every other case of their interference in social affairs, hath produced effects the most inimical to human welfare. Laws tainted by the noxious leaven of supernaturalism, (and what law have we that is not so tainted?) the property of which is to vitiate every thing in this fair world, and promulgated in times of ignorance, in combination with despotic aristocracies, will necessarily partake more of feudal savageness, and superstitious thraldom, than of civilization; their object being the mental and bodily slavery of the people—not humanity. But in the particular instance of the existing marriage law, love, which disdains, all constraint, and whose life and essence is freedom, is so flagrantly outraged at the sacrilegious attempt to fix his almighty power by vain and unearthly compulsion,...are horror-struck at a connexion so indissoluble; and which, instead of being a state of peaceful union, is generally one of hostility to its victims. The experienced in the common-place strife of matrimonial warfare, talk of it as being "only the ordinary quarrels between man and wife," whom pernicious custom, as if seeking deadly mischief, has pent up in the same apartment, continually exposing the belligerants to daily and hourly collision, after every vestige of mutual feeling or sympathy has been utterly destroyed... and there hath been generated, a cancerous mental poison of such exquisite subtilty, as to cause a pain far exceeding any other human suffering, and which can be borne only by wo-begone minds already broken down by the abject slavery it produces. This is the state that exhibits the most dismal portraiture of human misery.
Your petitioners will venture an appeal; even to your own domestic experience, whether disgust and aversion be not too generally the result of matrimony; owing to incompatibility of humour and temper (these being commonly as different as are the sexes); and whether time, instead of healing the wounds laid open by mutual reproaches, does not increase their virulence daily by fresh recriminations and injuries? Alas! the two persons turned into one by the presumptuous priest, soon find that they not only continue to be two still, but that they are diametrically opposed to each other; and then follow through life those well-known clouds and storms, which, though familiar in every day's experience, baffle all description; whilst the frightful list of progeny engendered in this procreative nest of nuptial discord, are—repentance, melancholy, jealousy, animosity, poverty, disgust, despair, &c., and the frequent catastrophe is, that one or other of the miserable victims, labouring under the jugum calamitosum, commits the greatest of all crimes, as the only available means of effecting that necessary separation which an inhuman law has prohibited. ... Now, so long as the yoke of matrimony shall continue to be fastened on by priests, and require, as they say, the perpetual clinch of some personage residing beyond the clouds, your petitioners feel themselves bound in conscience, to excuse these too well-founded fears in the prudent portion of the male sex, who cannot shut their eyes to the glaring fact, that a vast majority of the ill-fated beings whose necks have been so subjected, have found, not only the extinction of sacred liberty, but the sad weight and variety of its other miseries. The heart of man (aye, and of woman too) delights in freedom; even the idea of constraint is grievous; and every attempt to confine it by violence, makes it spurn even that object which would have been its choice if left at liberty.
"Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,
Spreads his light wing, and in a moment flies."
Against the perpetuity of marriage, the authority of the greatest and most enlightened minds may be quoted :—Milton says, "indisposition, unfitness, or contrary humours, proceeding from any unchangeable cause in Nature hindering, and always likely to hinder, the main ends and benefits of conjugal society, peace and delight, are greater reasons of divorce than adultery or natural frigidity."... In the present baneful system, if genuine love, THAT ONE CORDIAL IN THIS MELANCHOLY VALE, exists previous to marriage, that very act crushes it in the bud...; the free-born mind shrinks aghast at the absurd impossibilities enjoined by the terms of the irrevocable bond, which is thus imposed by our traffickers in celestial statute laws. But as no such juggling pretences can render this obligation sacred, longer than it contributes to the comfort of the parties, it is virtually and properly cancelled when its evils become greater than its benefits; therefore the facility of separation is the more indispensable... All men in Christian wedlock are in some measure shorn of their native dignity, and to a certain degree in bondage; women of every description whatsoever are notoriously slaves; from which state there can be no efficient emancipation, whilst any action committed by them shall carry more odium, and have effects more prejudicial to their reputation and welfare, than the commission of the same action has upon those of men. Your Petitioners therefore repeat, that although they are not slaves to the male sex, yet all are decidedly so to pernicious laws, usages, and institutions, palmed upon society in times of ignorance, by Aristocratic Despotism, Priestcraft & Co., as so many state devices to perpetuate ignorance and slavery. From this corrupt fountain hath the nuptial cup been poisoned; and, as if putting the final barrier against human felicity, love, without marriage, has been branded and denounced as a deadly sin; and as there is no equivalent under the sun, the professional enemies of Nature promise atonement in their own fanciful regions, for this fatal privation, which has murdered millions of millions of the female sex;... Laws proceeding from such vicious conventions, may thus violate the universal order of things; and leave to deluded man not a thousandth part of the happiness he is capable of enjoying; but as superlative power cannot be suppressed, all such impious infringements will for ever return upon the violators.
...
...
After a youthful training of this kind, in the school of false notions and erroneous views, where the only visible effect of an expensive education is to disqualify her for the domestic utilities, and to keep her so wholly ignorant of herself and of the world, that she is totally unprepared to meet the sad vicissitudes which may await her in life's calamitous journey, what has the "happy man" to expect in his wedded dame? Not the domestic virtues certainly. ... But in lieu thereof, he may expect strong self-will, with an undisguised contempt for every thing in the shape of that due deference and subservience—that winning complaisance ..., establishes her control over his household, his purse, and, as far as possible, even over his mind itself, which, in most instances, becomes feminized and shorn of its masculine energy :— the subdued tone and look, characterize the lion of the cage,—now no longer the high-minded free lion of the desart. In short, when once the poor man is CAUGHT, he is no longer suffered to be altogether himself; he must undergo a fresh moulding—be rendered tame—learn not only to bear, but to show respect for conversation however puerile and trifling; but above all, to be perfectly pliant and passive to every thing around him; whilst the tyranny of custom and laws founded upon superstition, justify the unnatural dominion.
...
In venturing to draw so frightful a picture of wedlock's mass of evil, and consequent miseries, your petitioners, though determined no longer to hug the theological viper that stings them, are actuated by no unrestrained humour or levity of disposition; they pray not for those accommodating liberties which were enjoyed of old by the Spartan ladies; nor would they have the ideal republic of Plato realized, wherein marriage would have been entirely abolished; nor do they approve St. Paul's plan to "defraud," by borrowing wives occasionally, though "it be with consent for a time;" neither are they advocates for the still greater licentiousness of Zeno, who asserted that women ought to be altogether unrestrained in their amours, that their children might be equally dear to all men, ... Yet any one of all these modes is infinitely preferable to Christian matrimony, which your petitioners have shown to be the most woful trap that was ever set for human liberty. But so deep-rooted is the dissimulation and falsehood which priestcraft, and its offspring of bad laws and customs, have diffused through all ranks of society, that the truths thus honestly laid bare before you, by removing the veil of hypocrisy, will not only be denied by the colleagued upholders of church and state abuses, but by a vast majority even of those who, from their long experience in connubial miseries, are the most fully convinced of their sad reality.
...
First. — As the innovation creating inequality of rights and liberties between the sexes, ... which are alike the birthright of all the human race, and of which they have been deprived as aforesaid, may be legally restored to them. That, after having attained the age specified by law, they may, under all circumstances, be rendered as capable of holding, in their own right, every species of property, and to all intents and purposes of using and bequeathing the same, in virtue of the same rights and privileges as those held and enjoyed by the male sex; and that the simple casualty of living under the social protection of a husband for the time being, shall in nowise weaken or alter this absolute right of property.
Secondly. — That the church-corrupted, and highly immoral laws of marriage, which now vitiate the union of the sexes, may be wholly abrogated. That new institutions and regulations may be formed, limiting the duration of that purely civil contract, so as to be entirely subject to the mutual inclination, convenience, and well-being of the parties concerned; and that these laws may, in all respects, be consonant with the principles, wants, and necessities of human nature; these being the only proper foundation on which to establish all laws affecting the moral government of society.
Thirdly. — As it is only a fair deduction drawn from experience in the affairs of mankind, that all the doctrines of supernaturalism, by whom or whensoever propagated, have never had any other operation than that of strangling the social rights, and poisoning all the choicest sweets of human life; your petitioners most earnestly implore that in the formation and ministration of the future laws, all ecclesiastical influence, interference, or control in any way whatever, may be wholly excluded.
Fourthly. — Having shown the absurd inconsistency which cruelly prevents the separation of persons whose couples alone render them wretched, and by which two people are lost to the community, who might otherwise be useful, your petitioners pray, that all parties who have the civil right to enter into a marriage contract, at their own discretion, may have the equal right preserved to them of dissolving the same, for their reciprocal comfort and convenience, or at the instance of either party, and subject only to such moral and political regulations as, in your wisdom, you shall deem beneficial for the protection and education of the offspring, and for the general interests of society.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, &c. &c.
(Signed) HYPATIA,
***************************************************
http://home1.gte.net/deleyd/religion/spinsters.html
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE SPINSTERS, TO THE LEGISLATURE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN SESSION ASSEMBLED.
By HYPATIA, AMANUENSIS FOR THE SPINSTERS.
PETITION.
Christian Marriage is the enemy of the natural union of the sexes.
The humble Petition, and earnest cry and prayer of that moiety of the women in these dominions, who are usually designated SPINSTERS, to the Legislature of Great Britain and Ireland, in Session assembled;—
HUMBLY SHEWETH,
That although your petitioners, from the natural timidity of the sex, approach you on this trying occasion with diffidence and feelings of alarm, yet, as their case involves some of the most important and inalienable rights of deeply injured humanity, they are imboldened to lay before you their wrongs and grievances, which call aloud for your interference and redress.
With a melancholy retrospect of the past, and hopeless foreboding of the future, the youthful amongst your petitioners see in prospect, the long array and dreary waste of days they are destined to spend in that languishing and ungenial state of celibacy, to which their equally abused sisterhood were, from the same cause, doomed in former ages; and it is with grief and despair that they now behold the yearly increasing numbers of the forlorn, down to the present time, when they form nearly two-thirds of all the women in these realms, between the ages of fourteen and seventy years.
In the present perverted condition of society, where it is usual to establish laws and customs so far in opposition to reason, as to supplant every thing natural, the arts of dissimulation, as they regard concealment of inherent feelings and propensities, are instilled into the female mind as the most essential part of education: every instinctive emotion however innocent,—every impulse however connected with health, must, under an assumed placidity and acquiescence, be suppressed as the height of sin and wickedness, though the fatal resistance exposes her to the maladies attendant on all such violations of the principle of animal existence; whilst the salutary disregard of this carefully cultivated hypocrisy, subjects her to all the odium which false delicacy and unnatural religion can invent. But so intolerable has female wretchedness now become in what is called civilized society, that the free expression thereof, together with its lamentable cause, shall no longer be prevented or concealed by fashion's irrational tyranny; and, therefore, your petitioners, stimulated by an assurance becoming fearless virtue, at once declare that the sole cause of their untoward and isolated condition, is the all-blasting marriage laws now in operation, which, having been rendered indissoluble through ecclesiastical usurpation, are now become the dread of all men possessing sound reflection, by whom they are shunned as the most direful pestilence of the social system. From this fell cause alone, and not from any prudish perverseness on their part (as God knows), your petitioners are doomed to that cheerless state of singleness which prevents them from fulfilling, in a lawful manner, the intentions of genial Nature, a predicament of all others the most abhorrent to that power.
Grounding their arguments on the palpable truths displayed both by fact and analogy, throughout the whole animal world; and denouncing all such conventional laws as have been palmed upon the credulity of society, under the false pretence of commands emanating from heaven, ... if the principles, propensities, and necessities, of the human species were duly considered, ... lessons of wisdom might be derived from the wise and faultless association of all other animals, amongst whom the union of the sexes is perfect, solely because it is not perpetual; where fidelity during frequently renewed marriage is inviolable,—the gallantry of the male towards the female admirable, and separation in due time mutually assented to, because highly proper and salutary. These are the dictates which spring from the innate principle, and constitutional elements of every thing that has life; but which, in the instance of man, have been thwarted and outraged by the atrocious laws of Christian matrimony; whereby silly and deluded mortals, in the sacrifice of their dearest liberty, have made themselves the outcasts of Nature; ... love constitutes the chief solace and enjoyment of all animals, man alone excepted, to him only, as the well-merited consequence of the gross and revolting violations of the benevolent impulse, it brings degradation and misery; for whenever the familiar intercourse of marriage ceases to be cemented by reciprocal affection, it becomes not only genuine prostitution, but the cause of it wherever it exists; all seduction being induced either by marriage or the dread of it. To the perpetuity of this tie alone, which is utterly abhorred by the universal mother of all existence, is to be attributed the thousand snares laid for female seduction, and its woful train of miseries; but these pass unpitied, and even unheeded, in this Christian country of boasted humanity.
When mankind are taught from infancy, to bend under the delusion of supernatural hopes and fears, and through, fallacious promises of another world, to give up their felicity in this, they are very easily led to trample upon all the rights and principles of their nature. When reduced to this abject state, it has ever been the wicked policy of corrupt legislators, in the nations of Christendom, to found their laws and institutions, not upon these principles and rights, though they alone form the proper basis of all social order and morality; but, on the contrary, to crush them, by taking into partnership the priesthoods of the various superstitions, pampering and abetting them in their incessant guileful practices against human liberty; and allowing them to usurp a mischievous interference and control in affairs purely civil; and the union of the sexes being unquestionably of that description, all agency or influence of priests should be wholly excluded in all its concerns and relations. Every particular marriage ought to be as different as any other species of bargain or contract; and as for the inconsistent absurdity of supposing, that parties who have the right to enter into this contract, at their mutual will and pleasure, have not an equal right to dissolve it for their reciprocal comfort and convenience, it is too hostile to human happiness to originate any where but in the Pandemonium of theological tyranny. To increase the gains and power of this all-pervading evil, the expedient was invented of calling down from heaven a commission, authorizing it to mix its life-lasting alloy in the simple union of the sexes, and to confound the civil contract with what is called a sacrament, or preternatural obligation, taken before a divine tribunal, as is ridiculously imagined, and not dissolvable but in death, or through the commission of a certain crime, which is thereby greatly promoted. Thus, by sacerdotal trammels, which are intrinsically grievous and degrading, has matrimony been rendered a snare, of all others the most sorrowful.
Your petitioners having shown that the evils they contemplate arise from a source inherently depraved,... solely owing to the perpetual gall of that yoke, which was first forged by the Christian priesthood, whose influence in this, as in every other case of their interference in social affairs, hath produced effects the most inimical to human welfare. Laws tainted by the noxious leaven of supernaturalism, (and what law have we that is not so tainted?) the property of which is to vitiate every thing in this fair world, and promulgated in times of ignorance, in combination with despotic aristocracies, will necessarily partake more of feudal savageness, and superstitious thraldom, than of civilization; their object being the mental and bodily slavery of the people—not humanity. But in the particular instance of the existing marriage law, love, which disdains, all constraint, and whose life and essence is freedom, is so flagrantly outraged at the sacrilegious attempt to fix his almighty power by vain and unearthly compulsion,...are horror-struck at a connexion so indissoluble; and which, instead of being a state of peaceful union, is generally one of hostility to its victims. The experienced in the common-place strife of matrimonial warfare, talk of it as being "only the ordinary quarrels between man and wife," whom pernicious custom, as if seeking deadly mischief, has pent up in the same apartment, continually exposing the belligerants to daily and hourly collision, after every vestige of mutual feeling or sympathy has been utterly destroyed... and there hath been generated, a cancerous mental poison of such exquisite subtilty, as to cause a pain far exceeding any other human suffering, and which can be borne only by wo-begone minds already broken down by the abject slavery it produces. This is the state that exhibits the most dismal portraiture of human misery.
Your petitioners will venture an appeal; even to your own domestic experience, whether disgust and aversion be not too generally the result of matrimony; owing to incompatibility of humour and temper (these being commonly as different as are the sexes); and whether time, instead of healing the wounds laid open by mutual reproaches, does not increase their virulence daily by fresh recriminations and injuries? Alas! the two persons turned into one by the presumptuous priest, soon find that they not only continue to be two still, but that they are diametrically opposed to each other; and then follow through life those well-known clouds and storms, which, though familiar in every day's experience, baffle all description; whilst the frightful list of progeny engendered in this procreative nest of nuptial discord, are—repentance, melancholy, jealousy, animosity, poverty, disgust, despair, &c., and the frequent catastrophe is, that one or other of the miserable victims, labouring under the jugum calamitosum, commits the greatest of all crimes, as the only available means of effecting that necessary separation which an inhuman law has prohibited. ... Now, so long as the yoke of matrimony shall continue to be fastened on by priests, and require, as they say, the perpetual clinch of some personage residing beyond the clouds, your petitioners feel themselves bound in conscience, to excuse these too well-founded fears in the prudent portion of the male sex, who cannot shut their eyes to the glaring fact, that a vast majority of the ill-fated beings whose necks have been so subjected, have found, not only the extinction of sacred liberty, but the sad weight and variety of its other miseries. The heart of man (aye, and of woman too) delights in freedom; even the idea of constraint is grievous; and every attempt to confine it by violence, makes it spurn even that object which would have been its choice if left at liberty.
"Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,
Spreads his light wing, and in a moment flies."
Against the perpetuity of marriage, the authority of the greatest and most enlightened minds may be quoted :—Milton says, "indisposition, unfitness, or contrary humours, proceeding from any unchangeable cause in Nature hindering, and always likely to hinder, the main ends and benefits of conjugal society, peace and delight, are greater reasons of divorce than adultery or natural frigidity."... In the present baneful system, if genuine love, THAT ONE CORDIAL IN THIS MELANCHOLY VALE, exists previous to marriage, that very act crushes it in the bud...; the free-born mind shrinks aghast at the absurd impossibilities enjoined by the terms of the irrevocable bond, which is thus imposed by our traffickers in celestial statute laws. But as no such juggling pretences can render this obligation sacred, longer than it contributes to the comfort of the parties, it is virtually and properly cancelled when its evils become greater than its benefits; therefore the facility of separation is the more indispensable... All men in Christian wedlock are in some measure shorn of their native dignity, and to a certain degree in bondage; women of every description whatsoever are notoriously slaves; from which state there can be no efficient emancipation, whilst any action committed by them shall carry more odium, and have effects more prejudicial to their reputation and welfare, than the commission of the same action has upon those of men. Your Petitioners therefore repeat, that although they are not slaves to the male sex, yet all are decidedly so to pernicious laws, usages, and institutions, palmed upon society in times of ignorance, by Aristocratic Despotism, Priestcraft & Co., as so many state devices to perpetuate ignorance and slavery. From this corrupt fountain hath the nuptial cup been poisoned; and, as if putting the final barrier against human felicity, love, without marriage, has been branded and denounced as a deadly sin; and as there is no equivalent under the sun, the professional enemies of Nature promise atonement in their own fanciful regions, for this fatal privation, which has murdered millions of millions of the female sex;... Laws proceeding from such vicious conventions, may thus violate the universal order of things; and leave to deluded man not a thousandth part of the happiness he is capable of enjoying; but as superlative power cannot be suppressed, all such impious infringements will for ever return upon the violators.
...
...
After a youthful training of this kind, in the school of false notions and erroneous views, where the only visible effect of an expensive education is to disqualify her for the domestic utilities, and to keep her so wholly ignorant of herself and of the world, that she is totally unprepared to meet the sad vicissitudes which may await her in life's calamitous journey, what has the "happy man" to expect in his wedded dame? Not the domestic virtues certainly. ... But in lieu thereof, he may expect strong self-will, with an undisguised contempt for every thing in the shape of that due deference and subservience—that winning complaisance ..., establishes her control over his household, his purse, and, as far as possible, even over his mind itself, which, in most instances, becomes feminized and shorn of its masculine energy :— the subdued tone and look, characterize the lion of the cage,—now no longer the high-minded free lion of the desart. In short, when once the poor man is CAUGHT, he is no longer suffered to be altogether himself; he must undergo a fresh moulding—be rendered tame—learn not only to bear, but to show respect for conversation however puerile and trifling; but above all, to be perfectly pliant and passive to every thing around him; whilst the tyranny of custom and laws founded upon superstition, justify the unnatural dominion.
...
In venturing to draw so frightful a picture of wedlock's mass of evil, and consequent miseries, your petitioners, though determined no longer to hug the theological viper that stings them, are actuated by no unrestrained humour or levity of disposition; they pray not for those accommodating liberties which were enjoyed of old by the Spartan ladies; nor would they have the ideal republic of Plato realized, wherein marriage would have been entirely abolished; nor do they approve St. Paul's plan to "defraud," by borrowing wives occasionally, though "it be with consent for a time;" neither are they advocates for the still greater licentiousness of Zeno, who asserted that women ought to be altogether unrestrained in their amours, that their children might be equally dear to all men, ... Yet any one of all these modes is infinitely preferable to Christian matrimony, which your petitioners have shown to be the most woful trap that was ever set for human liberty. But so deep-rooted is the dissimulation and falsehood which priestcraft, and its offspring of bad laws and customs, have diffused through all ranks of society, that the truths thus honestly laid bare before you, by removing the veil of hypocrisy, will not only be denied by the colleagued upholders of church and state abuses, but by a vast majority even of those who, from their long experience in connubial miseries, are the most fully convinced of their sad reality.
...
First. — As the innovation creating inequality of rights and liberties between the sexes, ... which are alike the birthright of all the human race, and of which they have been deprived as aforesaid, may be legally restored to them. That, after having attained the age specified by law, they may, under all circumstances, be rendered as capable of holding, in their own right, every species of property, and to all intents and purposes of using and bequeathing the same, in virtue of the same rights and privileges as those held and enjoyed by the male sex; and that the simple casualty of living under the social protection of a husband for the time being, shall in nowise weaken or alter this absolute right of property.
Secondly. — That the church-corrupted, and highly immoral laws of marriage, which now vitiate the union of the sexes, may be wholly abrogated. That new institutions and regulations may be formed, limiting the duration of that purely civil contract, so as to be entirely subject to the mutual inclination, convenience, and well-being of the parties concerned; and that these laws may, in all respects, be consonant with the principles, wants, and necessities of human nature; these being the only proper foundation on which to establish all laws affecting the moral government of society.
Thirdly. — As it is only a fair deduction drawn from experience in the affairs of mankind, that all the doctrines of supernaturalism, by whom or whensoever propagated, have never had any other operation than that of strangling the social rights, and poisoning all the choicest sweets of human life; your petitioners most earnestly implore that in the formation and ministration of the future laws, all ecclesiastical influence, interference, or control in any way whatever, may be wholly excluded.
Fourthly. — Having shown the absurd inconsistency which cruelly prevents the separation of persons whose couples alone render them wretched, and by which two people are lost to the community, who might otherwise be useful, your petitioners pray, that all parties who have the civil right to enter into a marriage contract, at their own discretion, may have the equal right preserved to them of dissolving the same, for their reciprocal comfort and convenience, or at the instance of either party, and subject only to such moral and political regulations as, in your wisdom, you shall deem beneficial for the protection and education of the offspring, and for the general interests of society.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, &c. &c.
(Signed) HYPATIA,
***************************************************
http://home1.gte.net/deleyd/religion/spinsters.html
Friday, May 4, 2007
THE JESUS-ZODIAC ALLEGORY
This is the most facinating explanation for the Jesus myth I've ever encountered. Please read it with an open mind and see the connections. IT'S EPIPHANY TIME! (Oddly enough... epiphany not only means 'sudden realization' but also the christian festival celebrating the devine manifestation of Jesus. The things that make you go hmm...
Solar Mythology and the Jesus Story
History — There is not a shred of legitimate historical evidence anywhere that the Jesus Story originated as the biography of a man named Jesus, and quite a lot of evidence that it did not. This has already been thoroughly covered by other people.
Comparative Religion — The basic plot of the Jesus Story, including the motif of a crucified savior, already existed in many other religions long prior to the alleged time of Jesus.
Solar Mythology — The Jesus Story is actually an allegory for what would naturally be the oldest and most important story humans would notice and write down, that of the annual passage of the seasons of the year. The position of the Sun against the celestial sphere changes during the year.
You are here privy to one of the best kept secrets of all time.
In ancient times people were very familiar with the Sun and the stars. At night they had nothing better to do than gaze up at the stars. They didn't conquer darkness with the flip of a light switch like we do nowadays. When sunset came that was it, that was the end of the day. They observed how the stars move across the sky during the night, and how different constellations are visible at different times of the year.
They made up stories which were allegories based on what they saw. Later on, these stories took on a life of their own, as the stories were passed down from generation to generation but the knowledge of what the stories represented was lost. People started believing the stories were real and actual history of events that actually really happened in the past, when originally the stories were nothing more than allegories for what people saw happening in the stars.
It's not surprising in our present culture of digital watches and wall calendars that we've lost the original astronomical meaning of these Bible stories. Today most people never look at the stars or pay any attention to the position of the sun in the sky.
Our Story Takes Place In Heaven. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:20. Heaven has always been up. Hell has always been down. Heaven and Hell are not just theologically opposite, they are geometrically opposite. Heaven above; Hell below.
Go outside at night and look up. You are literally looking at heaven. And what do you see? You see all the stars, which make up all the constellations. The Jesus Story takes place not on earth, but in the starry night sky above.
And that is the solution to the conundrum. That is the secret to understanding the Jesus story. The entire story of Jesus’ travels during his one year ministry is an allegory for the yearly journey of the Sun through the twelve zodiac constellations and the passage of the seasons of the year.
The Sun begins in Capricorn on December 22. (All dates are for “Biblical Times”, around the first or second century AD, when the Jesus Story was written. In our present age you have to wait until January 18 to see what they saw on December 22, due to the earth’s precession.) Each day at sunset Capricorn gets lower and lower until it is completely below the horizon. The Sun appears to travel upwards along the ecliptic through Capricorn towards Aquarius. Aquarius is where the Jesus Story begins.
January Sunset. The Sun is in Aquarius, currently halfway below the horizon. Pisces, the two fish, are above. As the month progresses Aquarius will appear lower and lower at sunset, until it is completely below the horizon, and Pisces will be on the horizon. In mid January the Sun enters Aquarius. Aquarius is the bringer of water, because it's the rainy season. Rain is the first step in the harvest cycle. Aquarius doesn't look anything like a man holding a pitcher of water. The constellation has more to do with what time of year it is and the significance of what is happening at that time of year. The rest is just an imaginative connecting of the dots to draw a picture of what you've already decided should be there in that part of the sky.
In January it is traditional in church to start reading through one of the Gospels depicting the life of Jesus. The Jesus story always begins with Jesus visiting John the Baptist, who baptizes with water. And that is the beginning of the allegory. Jesus is a personification of the Sun; John the Baptist is a personification of Aquarius. Jesus [the Sun], visits John the Baptist [Aquarius].
February Sunset. The Sun is now in Pisces. Aquarius is now below the horizon. As the month progresses the constellation Aquarius gets lower and lower on the western horizon and eventually ends up entirely below the horizon in February. The constellation Pisces, which comes after Aquarius, is now on the western horizon, and the Sun is said to now be in Pisces—the two fish. The constellation Aquarius is now below the horizon, and won't be seen at sunset again for six months.
February is a good time to go fishing. After all, there's a lot of water around from Aquarius bringing all that rain. Hunting isn't very good and there's no harvest yet to eat, so it's a good time to go fishing and eat fish.
The constellation has more to do with what time of year it is and the significance of what is happening at that time of year.
In the Jesus story after Jesus [the Sun], visits John the Baptist [Aquarius] the Bible says, “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee,....” (Mark 1:14;). Suddenly John the Baptist is "put in prison", and Jesus just goes on his merry way! There is no further explanation in the Bible, which seems quite strange if John were a real person. We want to know why he was "put in prison." What crime was he accused of? Who threw him in prison? Was there a trial? Did Jesus attend the trial and speak on his behalf? No. Nothing more is said. Jesus just continues on his journey and appears unconcerned about John the Baptist.
This is all very strange and hard to understand if interpreted as a story of real life events, but it all makes perfect sense when understood as an astronomical allegory. John the Baptist being put in prison is merely an allegory for the constellation Aquarius at sunset moving below the horizon. It is a natural phenomenon that requires no further explanation, and that is why there is no further explanation in the Bible.
Jesus, the Sun, continues on his way into "Galilee". The word "Galilee" literally means "circuit". A "circuit" is a closed, usually circular path. The ecliptic is the circuit the Sun travels along during the year. Jesus, a personification of the Sun, continues on his way along the ecliptic, or "Galilee".
So in February the Sun moves into Pisces, the two fish, and Jesus visits Simon and his brother Andrew, who are two fishermen. Simon and Andrew are personifications of the two fish of Pisces. (Mark 1:16) During this season faithful Catholics, Episcopalians, and Mahommedans observe Lent, when they abstain from meat and live upon the fishes. Christians also use the fish as a symbol of their religion.
Aries, the lamb of March, follows Pisces.
In March some wonderful things happen. Baby animals are born in March. Baby lambs are born. And the Sun moves from Pisces into Aries — the Ram, or Lamb. Jesus is sometimes referred to as "the Lamb of God".
In March the days get longer and warmer, and the crops begin to grow. The Sun, which had been rising south of due east, rises farther north each morning, until it reaches the point when the Sun rises directly due east. This day is the Vernal Equinox. At this time Christians celebrate Easter. East-er, because the Sun is rising due east. Easter is defined as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox, when the Sun rises directly in the east. Thus Easter day is technically defined to be:
Wait for the Vernal Equinox, the day when the Sun rises directly in the east.
Wait for a full moon, because they didn't have street lights and if you want to have a party it's much nicer to have it during a full moon.
Wait for Sunday, our religious day of the week set aside for religious parties.
And voilà, we have the secret behind the scheduling of Easter. It's customary for Christians to get up early on Easter morning to watch the Sun rise, then go to church and announce, “He has risen." He has risen indeed!
In April the Sun passes through Taurus. Then in May the Sun passes across the Milky Way — that starry band that lies like a lake across the night sky. At this point in the Jesus story Jesus crosses "the lake" and we have the allegorical story of Jesus walking on water. (Mark 4:35-41)
After the Sun crosses the Milky Way it moves into the constellation Gemini—the twins Castor and Pollux. In the Jesus story, after crossing the lake (the Milky Way), Jesus heals two demon possessed men (I bet their names were Castor and Pollux) (Matthew 8:28-34) Castor and Pollux are also explicitly mentioned in Acts 28:11 — "After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux."
In June the Sun passes through Cancer — the Crab that thought to go backwards. The starting date is June 21, the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, when the Sun is at its highest ascension. After this day the Sun does go backwards, beginning it's descent southward, as the days get shorter and shorter.
In July the Sun passes through Leo the Lion, for the strong hot days of summer. Around this point in the Jesus story an interesting thing happens — John the Baptist reappears and is beheaded. According to the Bible, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead,” (Mark 6:14). Recall how Aquarius moved below the western horizon at sunset and the Sun traveled from Aquarius to Pisces. After six months the constellation of Aquarius begins to rise on the sunset, and it appears that the head of Aquarius is cut off by the horizon. This is John the Baptist rising from the dead, the dead being those who are below the earth. This is the beheading of John the Baptist by King Herod, a personification of darkness.
Afterwards comes the story of Jesus' transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13). Jesus goes to a high mountain top and shines very brightly, just as the Sun is high in the sky and shines warmly and brightly during these Summer months.
After Leo comes Virgo the virgin of the harvest season. Summer passes, the story of Jesus’ journeys continues. We eventually come to the end of Summer, the month of August, and it's harvest time! Harvest time is the best time of the year, the time we’ve all been waiting for. In August the Sun has moved a new constellation that represents the harvest, that food which grows out of the virgin soil of the earth. The constellation is Virgo, the eternal celestial virgin, holding a sheath of wheat representing harvest time. Farmers who till the fields are said to be wedded to this celestial virgin for which they wait for each year. Thus they are known as "husbandmen," and their tools such as tractors are known as implements of husbandry.
Harvest time comes about three quarters of the way through the year, and it’s the happiest time of the year. And about three quarters of the way through the Jesus story is his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, which is the happiest part of the story (Mark 11:1-11) Everyone knows him and is happy to see him. Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem is an allegory for the Sun’s triumphant entry into Virgo the harvest time or "The Kingdom of Heaven". The time which Jesus refers to in earnest as coming soon throughout the story up to here.
After the harvest the Sun moves into Libra, the Scales. These are the "Scales of Justice." The harvest has been gathered, it is now time to sell the harvest. Scales are used in buying and selling the harvest. At the end of harvest time, when there is nothing left to sell, the money changers pack up and leave. The Bible says, “Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers.” (Mark 11:12-19) Jesus, the Sun, representing the passage of time, moves out of Libra, the Scales of Justice, and the money changers pack up and leave, because the season has passed and they are finished selling the harvest.
As we enter the season of Autumn the leaves fall from the trees and the trees appear to wither. It is at this point in the story that Jesus is said to curse the fig tree and make it wither, a story which makes no sense if Jesus were a real person, but it makes perfect sense when understood as an allegory. It is simply Autumn, and Jesus, the Sun, who makes the seasons pass, causes the leaves to fall from the trees (Mark 11:20-25)
In the Jesus story we then have the Last Supper, where Jesus and his twelve disciples, a reference to the twelve zodiac months of the year, recline and eat the harvest. (Mark 14:12-26) This is the natural time of year to have a huge feast. In America we celebrate Thanksgiving and have a huge feast of food. We eat the flesh of the fruit—figuratively the flesh of Jesus, who personifies the Sun which make the fruit grow; and we drink wine—the blood of the grapes, figuratively the blood of Jesus, who personifies the Sun which made the grapes grow. Without this food we would perish.
The Jesus story goes tragically downhill from there, just like in the season of Autumn the year tragically winds down and comes to an end as the days become short and cold. In October the Sun enters Scorpio, the Scorpion, which figuratively stings the Sun to make it slowly die. In the Jesus story Jesus is betrayed by Judas, one of the twelve zodiac months of the year. Judas represents Scorpio, the month of October. Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, representing the 30 days of the month. The month being one cycle of the phases of the moon. The moon, a piece of silver in the sky.
Jesus is handed over to Herod — a personification of Night. Herod, or the darkness of Night, is taking over Jesus, the Sun, as the days get shorter and shorter in Autumn and darkness begins to reign. Jesus is handed over to Pontius Pilate, literally "of the sea", a reference to the sea of stars above. (It's also of Latin origin, betraying it's late addition to the text.) "Pilate" is literally "armed with a spear", a reference to Sagittarius, the archer, the man armed with a spear. Pontius Pilate is a personification of Sagittarius, the last constellation of the year. Pilate is the last person Jesus sees in the story — Sagittarius is the last zodiac month of the year. Sagittarius is a man on a horse with a bow and arrow. He is the man armed with a spear. It is a good time of the year to go hunting. The animals are full grown. But the days get shorter and shorter and colder and colder as the year comes to a close. Things look dark and gloomy. What will happen to our savior, the Sun, who makes the harvest grow? Will he disappear forever?
Jesus is crucified and placed in a cave. It is the end of the story. A sad ending. But have faith. Jesus, the Sun, will arise again — a new year will begin. Three days after Jesus is placed in the cave he will arise again. This is the prophecy.
On Christmas day, December 25, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. December 22 was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, when the Sun was at its lowest. Three days later, on December 25, the sun rises 1/10 of it's width farther north — just barely detectable by carefully observing the shadows cast at sunrise. Our savior, the Sun, has been reborn, to begin the cycle of the year and the cycle of life again.
Hence the story is circular, just as the years are circular. A new year begins after the old year ends.
On New Years Eve we personify Father Time and Baby New Year, but we know these two figures aren't real people, they are merely personifications of the passage of time and the beginning of a new year. The current year is old and finished with. A new year is about to begin. The moment the Old Year ends a New Year begins. The cycle of life is circular and never ending.
In the Gospel story of Jesus, after his resurrection the story ends. People have always asked what did he do after that? Why does the story end here? Why isn't the rest of his life chronicled? — The reason is, if you want to read the continuation of the story, turn back to page one. The story is circular. Three days after Jesus dies and is placed in the cave he is born again, and the story begins anew.
*************************************************************
http://home1.gte.net/deleyd/religion/solarmyth/christ2002.htm
Solar Mythology and the Jesus Story
History — There is not a shred of legitimate historical evidence anywhere that the Jesus Story originated as the biography of a man named Jesus, and quite a lot of evidence that it did not. This has already been thoroughly covered by other people.
Comparative Religion — The basic plot of the Jesus Story, including the motif of a crucified savior, already existed in many other religions long prior to the alleged time of Jesus.
Solar Mythology — The Jesus Story is actually an allegory for what would naturally be the oldest and most important story humans would notice and write down, that of the annual passage of the seasons of the year. The position of the Sun against the celestial sphere changes during the year.
You are here privy to one of the best kept secrets of all time.
In ancient times people were very familiar with the Sun and the stars. At night they had nothing better to do than gaze up at the stars. They didn't conquer darkness with the flip of a light switch like we do nowadays. When sunset came that was it, that was the end of the day. They observed how the stars move across the sky during the night, and how different constellations are visible at different times of the year.
They made up stories which were allegories based on what they saw. Later on, these stories took on a life of their own, as the stories were passed down from generation to generation but the knowledge of what the stories represented was lost. People started believing the stories were real and actual history of events that actually really happened in the past, when originally the stories were nothing more than allegories for what people saw happening in the stars.
It's not surprising in our present culture of digital watches and wall calendars that we've lost the original astronomical meaning of these Bible stories. Today most people never look at the stars or pay any attention to the position of the sun in the sky.
Our Story Takes Place In Heaven. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:20. Heaven has always been up. Hell has always been down. Heaven and Hell are not just theologically opposite, they are geometrically opposite. Heaven above; Hell below.
Go outside at night and look up. You are literally looking at heaven. And what do you see? You see all the stars, which make up all the constellations. The Jesus Story takes place not on earth, but in the starry night sky above.
And that is the solution to the conundrum. That is the secret to understanding the Jesus story. The entire story of Jesus’ travels during his one year ministry is an allegory for the yearly journey of the Sun through the twelve zodiac constellations and the passage of the seasons of the year.
The Sun begins in Capricorn on December 22. (All dates are for “Biblical Times”, around the first or second century AD, when the Jesus Story was written. In our present age you have to wait until January 18 to see what they saw on December 22, due to the earth’s precession.) Each day at sunset Capricorn gets lower and lower until it is completely below the horizon. The Sun appears to travel upwards along the ecliptic through Capricorn towards Aquarius. Aquarius is where the Jesus Story begins.
January Sunset. The Sun is in Aquarius, currently halfway below the horizon. Pisces, the two fish, are above. As the month progresses Aquarius will appear lower and lower at sunset, until it is completely below the horizon, and Pisces will be on the horizon. In mid January the Sun enters Aquarius. Aquarius is the bringer of water, because it's the rainy season. Rain is the first step in the harvest cycle. Aquarius doesn't look anything like a man holding a pitcher of water. The constellation has more to do with what time of year it is and the significance of what is happening at that time of year. The rest is just an imaginative connecting of the dots to draw a picture of what you've already decided should be there in that part of the sky.
In January it is traditional in church to start reading through one of the Gospels depicting the life of Jesus. The Jesus story always begins with Jesus visiting John the Baptist, who baptizes with water. And that is the beginning of the allegory. Jesus is a personification of the Sun; John the Baptist is a personification of Aquarius. Jesus [the Sun], visits John the Baptist [Aquarius].
February Sunset. The Sun is now in Pisces. Aquarius is now below the horizon. As the month progresses the constellation Aquarius gets lower and lower on the western horizon and eventually ends up entirely below the horizon in February. The constellation Pisces, which comes after Aquarius, is now on the western horizon, and the Sun is said to now be in Pisces—the two fish. The constellation Aquarius is now below the horizon, and won't be seen at sunset again for six months.
February is a good time to go fishing. After all, there's a lot of water around from Aquarius bringing all that rain. Hunting isn't very good and there's no harvest yet to eat, so it's a good time to go fishing and eat fish.
The constellation has more to do with what time of year it is and the significance of what is happening at that time of year.
In the Jesus story after Jesus [the Sun], visits John the Baptist [Aquarius] the Bible says, “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee,....” (Mark 1:14;). Suddenly John the Baptist is "put in prison", and Jesus just goes on his merry way! There is no further explanation in the Bible, which seems quite strange if John were a real person. We want to know why he was "put in prison." What crime was he accused of? Who threw him in prison? Was there a trial? Did Jesus attend the trial and speak on his behalf? No. Nothing more is said. Jesus just continues on his journey and appears unconcerned about John the Baptist.
This is all very strange and hard to understand if interpreted as a story of real life events, but it all makes perfect sense when understood as an astronomical allegory. John the Baptist being put in prison is merely an allegory for the constellation Aquarius at sunset moving below the horizon. It is a natural phenomenon that requires no further explanation, and that is why there is no further explanation in the Bible.
Jesus, the Sun, continues on his way into "Galilee". The word "Galilee" literally means "circuit". A "circuit" is a closed, usually circular path. The ecliptic is the circuit the Sun travels along during the year. Jesus, a personification of the Sun, continues on his way along the ecliptic, or "Galilee".
So in February the Sun moves into Pisces, the two fish, and Jesus visits Simon and his brother Andrew, who are two fishermen. Simon and Andrew are personifications of the two fish of Pisces. (Mark 1:16) During this season faithful Catholics, Episcopalians, and Mahommedans observe Lent, when they abstain from meat and live upon the fishes. Christians also use the fish as a symbol of their religion.
Aries, the lamb of March, follows Pisces.
In March some wonderful things happen. Baby animals are born in March. Baby lambs are born. And the Sun moves from Pisces into Aries — the Ram, or Lamb. Jesus is sometimes referred to as "the Lamb of God".
In March the days get longer and warmer, and the crops begin to grow. The Sun, which had been rising south of due east, rises farther north each morning, until it reaches the point when the Sun rises directly due east. This day is the Vernal Equinox. At this time Christians celebrate Easter. East-er, because the Sun is rising due east. Easter is defined as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox, when the Sun rises directly in the east. Thus Easter day is technically defined to be:
Wait for the Vernal Equinox, the day when the Sun rises directly in the east.
Wait for a full moon, because they didn't have street lights and if you want to have a party it's much nicer to have it during a full moon.
Wait for Sunday, our religious day of the week set aside for religious parties.
And voilà, we have the secret behind the scheduling of Easter. It's customary for Christians to get up early on Easter morning to watch the Sun rise, then go to church and announce, “He has risen." He has risen indeed!
In April the Sun passes through Taurus. Then in May the Sun passes across the Milky Way — that starry band that lies like a lake across the night sky. At this point in the Jesus story Jesus crosses "the lake" and we have the allegorical story of Jesus walking on water. (Mark 4:35-41)
After the Sun crosses the Milky Way it moves into the constellation Gemini—the twins Castor and Pollux. In the Jesus story, after crossing the lake (the Milky Way), Jesus heals two demon possessed men (I bet their names were Castor and Pollux) (Matthew 8:28-34) Castor and Pollux are also explicitly mentioned in Acts 28:11 — "After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux."
In June the Sun passes through Cancer — the Crab that thought to go backwards. The starting date is June 21, the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, when the Sun is at its highest ascension. After this day the Sun does go backwards, beginning it's descent southward, as the days get shorter and shorter.
In July the Sun passes through Leo the Lion, for the strong hot days of summer. Around this point in the Jesus story an interesting thing happens — John the Baptist reappears and is beheaded. According to the Bible, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead,” (Mark 6:14). Recall how Aquarius moved below the western horizon at sunset and the Sun traveled from Aquarius to Pisces. After six months the constellation of Aquarius begins to rise on the sunset, and it appears that the head of Aquarius is cut off by the horizon. This is John the Baptist rising from the dead, the dead being those who are below the earth. This is the beheading of John the Baptist by King Herod, a personification of darkness.
Afterwards comes the story of Jesus' transfiguration (Mark 9:2-13). Jesus goes to a high mountain top and shines very brightly, just as the Sun is high in the sky and shines warmly and brightly during these Summer months.
After Leo comes Virgo the virgin of the harvest season. Summer passes, the story of Jesus’ journeys continues. We eventually come to the end of Summer, the month of August, and it's harvest time! Harvest time is the best time of the year, the time we’ve all been waiting for. In August the Sun has moved a new constellation that represents the harvest, that food which grows out of the virgin soil of the earth. The constellation is Virgo, the eternal celestial virgin, holding a sheath of wheat representing harvest time. Farmers who till the fields are said to be wedded to this celestial virgin for which they wait for each year. Thus they are known as "husbandmen," and their tools such as tractors are known as implements of husbandry.
Harvest time comes about three quarters of the way through the year, and it’s the happiest time of the year. And about three quarters of the way through the Jesus story is his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, which is the happiest part of the story (Mark 11:1-11) Everyone knows him and is happy to see him. Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem is an allegory for the Sun’s triumphant entry into Virgo the harvest time or "The Kingdom of Heaven". The time which Jesus refers to in earnest as coming soon throughout the story up to here.
After the harvest the Sun moves into Libra, the Scales. These are the "Scales of Justice." The harvest has been gathered, it is now time to sell the harvest. Scales are used in buying and selling the harvest. At the end of harvest time, when there is nothing left to sell, the money changers pack up and leave. The Bible says, “Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers.” (Mark 11:12-19) Jesus, the Sun, representing the passage of time, moves out of Libra, the Scales of Justice, and the money changers pack up and leave, because the season has passed and they are finished selling the harvest.
As we enter the season of Autumn the leaves fall from the trees and the trees appear to wither. It is at this point in the story that Jesus is said to curse the fig tree and make it wither, a story which makes no sense if Jesus were a real person, but it makes perfect sense when understood as an allegory. It is simply Autumn, and Jesus, the Sun, who makes the seasons pass, causes the leaves to fall from the trees (Mark 11:20-25)
In the Jesus story we then have the Last Supper, where Jesus and his twelve disciples, a reference to the twelve zodiac months of the year, recline and eat the harvest. (Mark 14:12-26) This is the natural time of year to have a huge feast. In America we celebrate Thanksgiving and have a huge feast of food. We eat the flesh of the fruit—figuratively the flesh of Jesus, who personifies the Sun which make the fruit grow; and we drink wine—the blood of the grapes, figuratively the blood of Jesus, who personifies the Sun which made the grapes grow. Without this food we would perish.
The Jesus story goes tragically downhill from there, just like in the season of Autumn the year tragically winds down and comes to an end as the days become short and cold. In October the Sun enters Scorpio, the Scorpion, which figuratively stings the Sun to make it slowly die. In the Jesus story Jesus is betrayed by Judas, one of the twelve zodiac months of the year. Judas represents Scorpio, the month of October. Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, representing the 30 days of the month. The month being one cycle of the phases of the moon. The moon, a piece of silver in the sky.
Jesus is handed over to Herod — a personification of Night. Herod, or the darkness of Night, is taking over Jesus, the Sun, as the days get shorter and shorter in Autumn and darkness begins to reign. Jesus is handed over to Pontius Pilate, literally "of the sea", a reference to the sea of stars above. (It's also of Latin origin, betraying it's late addition to the text.) "Pilate" is literally "armed with a spear", a reference to Sagittarius, the archer, the man armed with a spear. Pontius Pilate is a personification of Sagittarius, the last constellation of the year. Pilate is the last person Jesus sees in the story — Sagittarius is the last zodiac month of the year. Sagittarius is a man on a horse with a bow and arrow. He is the man armed with a spear. It is a good time of the year to go hunting. The animals are full grown. But the days get shorter and shorter and colder and colder as the year comes to a close. Things look dark and gloomy. What will happen to our savior, the Sun, who makes the harvest grow? Will he disappear forever?
Jesus is crucified and placed in a cave. It is the end of the story. A sad ending. But have faith. Jesus, the Sun, will arise again — a new year will begin. Three days after Jesus is placed in the cave he will arise again. This is the prophecy.
On Christmas day, December 25, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. December 22 was the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, when the Sun was at its lowest. Three days later, on December 25, the sun rises 1/10 of it's width farther north — just barely detectable by carefully observing the shadows cast at sunrise. Our savior, the Sun, has been reborn, to begin the cycle of the year and the cycle of life again.
Hence the story is circular, just as the years are circular. A new year begins after the old year ends.
On New Years Eve we personify Father Time and Baby New Year, but we know these two figures aren't real people, they are merely personifications of the passage of time and the beginning of a new year. The current year is old and finished with. A new year is about to begin. The moment the Old Year ends a New Year begins. The cycle of life is circular and never ending.
In the Gospel story of Jesus, after his resurrection the story ends. People have always asked what did he do after that? Why does the story end here? Why isn't the rest of his life chronicled? — The reason is, if you want to read the continuation of the story, turn back to page one. The story is circular. Three days after Jesus dies and is placed in the cave he is born again, and the story begins anew.
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http://home1.gte.net/deleyd/religion/solarmyth/christ2002.htm
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