The Threefold Rule Gets Shot Down. Real Witches Cheer!

Nothing quite like going grocery shopping the day before a snowstorm only to discover the next morning after all the snow has dropped that you forgot to buy something vital, like, oh say ... just for the sake of argument ... toilet paper! Having now unburied my car, and slid out of the apartment complex onto the main road just as two fire trucks were pulling in (always a comforting sight), I’m now back home, grumbling as usual. And no, my home did not burn down – in fact, I can’t even figure out why those fire trucks were here in the first place.

I simply adore being given the opportunity to shriek, "See? I TOLD you so! Nyah, nyah, nyah!" Well, who wouldn’t, really? In this case, if you’ll flip back a few pages to Thursday, September 20, 2012:  Damien Echols: Life After Death. And Me Complaining (Again) About the Wiccan Rede you’ll recall I whined on endlessly about today’s girly-girly wiccans being little more than tightly corseted church ladies with pointy hats. And they’re all the more worthy of having the sh*t slapped out of them for depriving an entire generation of witches of their power.

Today I opened a daybook looking for something worthwhile to connect to the 30th of December. Kate West’s The Real Witches Year had today devoted to the December 30th topic of "cinnamon". Don’t ask, I have no idea why either. So I started looking around for love spells using cinnamon. Found a [bleep] load of girly-girly spells like this one,

"I personally do not believe in love spell casting for dominating an individual or imposing will upon them. I believe in a love spell for being or becoming more loving. There are moments in our lives where we become bitter, angry, or/are feeling hurt. Love spells are great for alleviating depression, subduing anger, calming peoples attitude; and of course the most important; bringing more passion to the love making."http://babasixto.hubpages.com/hub/Successful-Love-Spells

That pile of hoo-hah was by someone named "Baba Sixto", who practices Santeria. Riiight. Okay, Baba baby, let’s get this through our head: "LOVE SPELLS ARE NOT FOR ALLEVIATING DEPRESSION OR SUBDUING ANGER!" For those you need Spells to Alleviate Depression, or Anger Subduing Spells! Good lord, lady.

And here’s a true Tinkerbelle:

"Another quick word about love spells - I will not provide any love spells in this article on which can be cast upon other people. True good witches do not believe in casting any love spells on others, as that is a way to manipulate the person and push against their own free will."http://kittythedreamer.hubpages.com/hub/Real-Witches-Spells-Powerful-Love-Spells-That-Work

Again, it’s highly doubtful that any of Kitty’s Krazy Love Konkoctions work – BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T KNOW ANY! Kitty has set herself as judge, jury and executioner of everyone else’s morality which is something you’d expect from ... well, you know which group which I won’t say out loud (americansouthernbaptist) – and not from traditional witches, who are responsible for themselves and no one else. What, she’s only providing you with love spells to work on yourself? What a judgemental ugly church lady Kitty The Dreamer (whose name pretty much says it all) is! Masturbation Central, incoming express train, heading south! "True good witches", my sweet ass. Somebody slap that woman sideways. Sheesh.

And here’s a condescending twit for you

There are NO LOVE SPELLS to be found on this site which will make someone fall in love with you!!! You can not and should not interfere with people's free will! The right person will come to you, at the right time in your life. Remind the Threefold Law, you should.

She sounds just like a Charlie Brown cartoon teacher: bwah, bwah-bwah-BWAH! Bwah-bwah-bwah. That silliness was from "Jinni from Massachusetts" who pronounced herself a single working mom with 2 beautiful kids who lost 25 pounds since becoming a witch! (Complete with poseur before and after photos). There will be a short barfing break for all real witches. Convene in five.

And then people wonder why I can’t stand most women.

So finally I found one that had only one reference to the christian right’s idea of control over others –
http://www.spellsofmagic.com/spells/love_spells/crush_spells/7656/page.html

"You will need the following items for this spell:
Cinnamon
pink or red string
candle(optional)
Pick up the cinnamon and say "Scent familliar, love true, bend -------'s heart threefold rule!" then pick up the string and say "with this thread/yarn I tie this love so true", tie the string around the cinnamon three times ,tie it,and state, "It is my will, so shall it be!" keep the cinnamon on your altar with the string still on and keep it as is until it starts to show results. Be patient as it may take a while."

That made me look up the threefold rule again, uneasily. Thanks to Wikipedia:

The Rule of Three (also Three-fold Law or Law of Return) is a religious tenet held by some Wiccans. It states that whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times. Some subscribe to a variant of this law in which return is not necessarily threefold.

The Rule of Three is sometimes described as karma by Wiccans, however this is not strictly accurate. Both concepts describe the process of cause and effect and often encourage the individual to act in a good way. However the concept of karma, according to the scriptures of Buddhism, Hinduism and other eastern belief systems, does not operate on a system of three-fold return. Furthermore, such belief systems do not contain the same concepts of 'good' and 'evil' that Wicca does.

According to John Coughlin the Law posits "a literal reward or punishment tied to one's actions, particularly when it comes to working magic". The law is not a universal article of faith among Wiccans, and "there are many Wiccans, experienced and new alike, who view the Law of Return as an overelaboration on the Wiccan Rede." Some Wiccans believe that it is a modern innovation based on Christian morality.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

John Coughlin, who has a wonderful website on this very topic, quotes Doreen Valiente in her her speech at the National Conference of the Pagan Federation in November 1997:

Another teaching of Gerald's which I have come to question is the belief known popularly as "the Law of Three". This tells us that whatever you send out in witchcraft you get back threefold, for good or ill.

Well, I don't believe it! Why should we believe that there is a special Law of Karma that applies only to witches? For Goddess' sake do we really kid ourselves that we are that important? Yet I am told, many people, especially in the USA, take this as an article of faith. I have never seen it in any of the old books of magic, and I think Gerald invented it.

THANK YOU AGAIN!!

And here’s my source:
http://www.waningmoon.com/ethics/3fl.shtml

More Comments from "Anonymous"

No offense, "Anonymous", but why can’t you even come up with an invented name? This next "Anonymous" who posted on Piero Barone and His Marshmallows, and who I assume is not the same "Anonymous" as the previous few "Anonymous-es" – wanted to know why I hadn’t rushed over to Amazon.com to assault the women who had written bad reviews about Il Volo’s latest cd.

Um ... perhaps because I hadn’t been reading them? In all fairness there aren’t that many of them, but (a) they seem to be copying each other, leading one to suspect it’s one troll under multiple screen names, or (b) the few bad reviews there are seem to be the work of a boatload of poorly educated broads who have no idea how to compose a proper review.

My favorite childish outburst came from a genuine dimwit named Carol Cortazzo, who was "reviewing" (and we use that word so loosely it may not be in the same stratosphere), "We Are Love". Now, trust me I don’t really care if you have good reasons for not liking something, but this was her inane "review":

"From being amazing young Italian singers they have become imitations of American punk-looking, skinny nobodies who happen to have been blessed with great voices. We have enough no-talent teanagers here. We need more original talent. They should be themselves. I would not recomend this CD to anyone and probably will not buy their new CDs."

Oooooh. There will now be a pause while we applaud Miss Cortazzo’s "sterile granny panties in a twist" grand diva-esque exit and peculiar spelling of the words "teenagers" and "recommend" and yell "Buh-bye!" at her cellulite-laden buttocks ... but really – none of that made a lick of sense. PUNK-looking? This group of teenagers? (see photo, above left) The least punk-looking group of teenage boys I can think of? And "skinny"? What, she’d rather they were all fat and clumsy?

Hey, but at least they had "great voices" – and you would have thought that her review of a cd of songs would have made mention of that, instead of picking on them for getting skinnier as they grew taller, which at least two of them did. Since they are – when last we looked – teenage boys. She may not like it, but she can’t get around it. Teenage boys grow up.

I’m not even sure I want to beat the broad up, Anonymous – this wasn’t even a review of the cd – I doubt anyone could figure out what had pissed her off, but it sounds insanely personal. Either that, or proof that women need to gobble down a handful of Midol before composing reviews of anything. Damn idiot sounded like one of them stood her up on a date or something.

I know, I should talk, since I seem to be complaining about everything too. My only explanation at the moment: in addition to a broken kneecap, the Sky Sadist knocked a filling out of one of my bottom molars and then laughed uproariously at the doubled pain. One emergency root canal later ... I sit in the office glumly opening one of my two lunchtime Chinese fortune cookies that reads, "Your winsome smile will be your sure protection." Really? You’re sure about that? I HAVE NO WINSOME SMILE RIGHT NOW, YOU IDIOTS!!! I can’t even open my mouth! [kapow!]

Actually, to be even more accurate, I’m not all that sure I had a winsome smile before the emergency root canal, thanks to the Bells Palsy.

The other cookie: "You will be traveling and coming into a fortune." OK, that I can live with. I’ll come into a fortune and then travel without any sure protection. Lovely. Remind me not to carry cash.

My previous entry may have reminded some readers of Umberto Eco’s famous quote about lunatics in Foucault’s Pendulum:

A lunatic is easily recognized. He is a moron who doesn’t know the ropes. The moron proves his thesis; he has a logic, however twisted it may be. The lunatic, on the other hand, doesn’t concern himself at all with logic; he works by short circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.

Or, in my case, "she". Fine. I claim lunacy with pride – probably caused by intense pain – having circled back around to the Templars two entries ago, in the Solomon and David discussion.

I also mentioned in a previous entry that I was reading Born of a Woman, by John Shelby Spong ... one of his comments led me to research another book and author, The Illegitimacy of Jesus: A Feminist Theological Interpretation of the Infancy Narratives, by Jane Schaberg – basically, her theory was that Jesus was actually the son of a Roman centurion and a product of rape, and I say "theory" only because I haven’t read the book.

What struck me, though, were the hideously evil posts from christians that followed the book summary: cursing her, damning her to hell, threatening to murder her, wishing they could burn her at the stake ... basically post after post of things so vicious and ugly your jaw just dropped. Jesus must be so proud of all these insane followers doing things he sure never did.

Nymphs
by: Evelyn Scott (1893-1963)

Normally I’m not a big fan of Evelyn Scott – after we tried to parse and otherwise evaluate her "Tunnel" (which had my U of M creative writing class muttering "ewww!" under their breaths) I didn’t think I would like anything she wrote– but I later changed my mind. This one I liked.

The drift of shadows on the mountainside,
Blue and purple gold!
Purple dust sifting through fingers of ivory:
Cool purple on ivory breasts.
I see arms and breasts,
Upturned chins,
Slanting through the dust of purple leaves:
Ivory and gold,
Bare breasts and laughing eyes,
That drift on the shadowy surf
And surge against the side of the mountain.

The Real Meaning of Mistletoe ... and it ain't Kissin'

A more appropriate work I couldn’t be reading on the 24th of December: re-thinking the christian birth narrative. Well, that’s not entirely true: I was also reading Giada De Laurentiis’ recipe for struffoli and drooling, but alas ... methinks the days of nibbling on such treats are over unless I actually enjoy clogging up my own arteries. [There will now be a lonnnnng pause while I decide whether or not clogging up my own arteries with struffoli is worth it. I mean, c’mon, it’s STRUFFOLI.] [Whimper]

FINE. Decision made, and I promise to be grumpy for the remainder of this blog entry.

I’m paging through Wheel of the Year, and at least so far, Pauline Campanelli is being careful to attribute things she discusses to specific traditions (her mistletoe lore to the Druids, for example), and remarking on changes that took place once Druids declined and disappeared under Roman rule.

As far as this lovely ("pale-green, fairy mistletoe") plant is concerned, before that happened, and before christians followed up the Romans and made things even more boring, mistletoe was a lot more interesting.

At the time of the Druids, mistletoe was believed to be the semen of the gods, because the berries (as you can see from the photo) contain a liquid that looks like and has the texture of semen. Another reason is that mistletoe is propagated by inserting the ... er ... contents of the berries into a small slash cut into, traditionally, an oak tree. And all it took was one horny Druid to connect one visual image ("Hmmmm. Slash. Insert. Semen-looking stuff!") with another.

Needless to say, the history of the mistletoe was NOT the Victorian-era chaste little peck on the cheek christians like to think it was, but a vastly more pleasant, normal and arousing activity. (And no, I didn’t mean a deity’s semen dripping on your head while you made out with your boyfriend in a doorway! Unless you like that sort of thing. And if so, I don’t wanna know about it, beyond a tastefully worded request for a gift of industrial strength shampoo for the holidays). But the point is: mistletoe = fertility and lust spells.

Keep in mind as you’re scanning for spells that mistletoe was gathered not once but twice a year: at Yule, and at midsummer. In Yule, you have the white berries; at midsummer, the red.

Mistletoe
by Walter de la Mare (1913)

Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Some one came, and kissed me there.

Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale-green, fairy mistletoe),
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen - and kissed me there.

So, let’s examine yet another example of the ugly judeo-christian-muslim habit of taking the sacred and turning it into something pornographic, merely because they are unable to understand the concept of sex without having an emotional breakdown.

Let’s read a quote from a distant Greek historian named Herodotus, shall we? He’s discussing a Babylonian or Mesopotamian custom:

"The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger once in her life. Many women who are rich and proud and disdain to mingle with the rest, drive to the temple in covered carriages drawn by teams, and stand there with a great retinue of attendants. But most sit down in the sacred plot of Aphrodite, with crowns of cord on their heads; there is a great multitude of women coming and going; passages marked by line run every way through the crowd, by which the men pass and make their choice. Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home before some stranger has cast money into her lap, and had intercourse with her outside the temple; but while he casts the money, he must say, "I invite you in the name of Mylitta" (that is the Assyrian name for Aphrodite). It does not matter what sum the money is; the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfill the law; for some of them remain for three years, or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus."

The problems with Herodotus are numerous – even among Greek scholars he is regarded skeptically as he was known for repeating rumor and gossip without verifying any of it, AND for deliberately inventing things to make other cities but Grecian ones look corrupt.

But even so, what is interesting, I believe, from Herodotus’ point of view, is that the act is required of women from all class levels – hence his description of women who are "rich and proud and disdain to mingle with the rest." He also seems disturbed by the "uncomely" needing to remain at the temple for three to four years. Prostitution did exist in Greece, and was neither reviled or condemned.

From our point of view, the judeo-christian-islamic (JCI for short) translations tell you everything you need to know. One translation uses the word "foul". Another translation uses the word "wholly shameful". NOWHERE in either translation is the word "prostitution" used, because Herodotus never used the word. Whoever wrote the description for Wikipedia used the word. Anyone wanna lay bets on which country that fool was from? "Land of the free and home of the desiccated and wrinkled nether regions" ring a bell? Same people.

Here’s the introduction in Wikipedia to the above paragraph: "The ancient Greek historian Herodotus was the first to state that the ancient Mesopotamians practiced temple prostitution." Again – Herodotus never used the word, only the Wikipedia author.
 

Saytan Dun It!

The co-worker from North Carolina called on Monday. "Saytan!" she screeched. "Saytan dun it! Ah’s been cryin’ and cryin all weekend!" Since she’s about as hard, cold and inflexible as a pile of rocks, I was (to put it mildly) skeptical. Sure she’s been crying and crying all weekend. Even her own mother wouldn’t have believed that one.

She’s referring to the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

"Really? I wasn’t aware they’d finished the investigative report already." Impressively fast conclusion to a criminal investigation that just happened this week and was supposed to last about six months. I wondered where the Police Chief in Connecticut was going to write that in whatever report it is they pull together at the end of an investigation: "SAYTAN DUN IT!"

How I despise fanatical christians. She swears all mental illness is caused by demons, which should make the parents of infants born with Down’s Syndrome or the families of depressives or of teenage schizophrenics happy. At least it wasn’t anything the parents did. SAYTAN DUN IT! DEMONS DUN IT! She’s probably going to blame the fallen angels next. Why do I even talk to this woman? Oh yeah, my job requires me to. Since the manager is also a nutball christian, there’s no one I can complain to about the constant proselyting. I suspect the same thing happens in the military, which has been seriously infected with dark and evil christian fanatics.

Meanwhile, I’ve been reading all sorts of things.

Lon Milo Duquette’s Key to Solomon’s Key, despite a few inexplicable leaps of "logic" I couldn’t follow, was actually somewhat interesting, although it did take us in a roundabout way back to the Knights Templar. Duquette is a Mason, btw.

In this version, the Templars did not uncover a descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but something that conclusively proved that David and Solomon didn’t exist (more to follow) AND that the genuine church was based in Jerusalem and not Rome, under the auspices of Jesus’s brother James and not under Paul. Duquette didn’t say this, but it occurred to me as I was reading him, that the Roman church obsessing over Paul would be certainly bolstered by their supportive obsession with Mary’s perpetual virginity ... in other words, Jesus wouldn’t have had a brother to be the legitimate "rock" at the foundation of a conflicting version of christianity, if his mother never had sex. And no one gave Jesus’s mother a micro-second’s worth of thought until about the 5th century.

Although I’m still wondering when the Masons will suddenly wake up and wonder why they’re carrying on misogynistic behavior from the BCE era, along with everything else. And no, the Eastern Star – or, more accurately, the "wives of the vastly more important people" adjunct organization – doesn’t count, since it only exists to stop the whining on the distaff side when portly geriatric men march out of their castles to mill and mumble and congregate and play with compasses.

Back to the point of which I was unaware: that there is no independent, verifiable proof that the biblical kings David and Solomon ever existed, and in fact, the archeological evidence there is proves that the great "nation" of Israel at the time those kings were to have lived was little more than a tribal village. First thought: is that right? Went and did some rudimentary research. Yup. He was correct – nothing. Besides the usual yahoos screaming, "I duzn’t need no stankin’ PROOF!" (yeah, okay), and one line out of Josephus. Also irrelevant. Josephus was a Jewish historian-slash- propagandist who wrote a history of the jews that christians re-re-wrote after he kicked the bucket. The christian mis-transcriptionist (I’m guessing an evil and unscrupulous monk) had a Jewish historian proclaiming enthusiastically something to the effect that Jesus was the Messiah (!!!), which provoked so much laughter after the Christian Inquisition was over and it was safe to laugh hysterically without being tortured, murdered and burnt at the stake, that I think there was even a wanted poster out for the revisionist. And christians STILL try to provide that silliness as "proof" because they don’t know any better. Anyway, my jaw basically dropped. Wow. Who knew?

Invoking the Scribes of Ancient Egypt. Normandi Ellis, Gloria Taylor Brown. An irritatingly mis-titled book if there ever was one. A gaggle of grey and white-haired well-to-do women and one poor guy, some dizzily channeling Helen Roper’s personal caftan stylist, take a guided tour of Egypt, shopping for more caftans and writing down uninteresting little personal stories as they go. ("Oh, MY! I got divorced and SURVIVED!") The worst insult is one horrifying christian who squeaks "Praise Jesus!" at every stop, insulting all of the gods and goddesses whose altars and temples she visited. And the dumb cows actually wrote that down, as though the very act of recording it showed how open-minded they were. How appallingly disrespectful they were is more like it; I’m surprised their Egyptian guide didn’t toss them all into the nearest airlock and have them all deported. By the end of the book you have your finger down your throat and are hurling into the nearest toilet. I’m trying to figure out how to get a refund, as no ancient Egyptian scribes were invoked at any time.

Then I located another Paradise Lost and was again stunned. I had been laboring (on my second book of poetry) under the serious delusion that John Milton had written the only "Paradise Lost". I was wrong! Milton, it seems, had stolen the title, and even the idea practically in its entirety from a much earlier poet, who wrote in Anglo-Saxon. I’m reading it now, or at least, I’m reading the translation of it now.

According to William H.F. Bosanquet in 1860, The Fall of Man or Paradise Lost by Cædmon, "was first printed in 1655 [in Anglo Saxon] without a translation, "the year in which Milton is supposed to have made his first sketch of Paradise Lost." (!!!!) Lovely.

Next book: Dictionary of Demons, by Michelle Belanger, and back to the Fallen Angels. Normally, I like Michelle Belanger – she seems very down to earth – not surprising for a Capricorn. That said, reading her entry on Shemyaza, the leader of the 20 I’m listing for you here, in her Dictionary of Demons is a little irritating – "he was guilty of the SIN of lust?" That isn’t what the Book of Enoch said. He was condemned for being enamored of human women who were unclean. You’da thunk that if anyone would regard such misogynistic text as offensive and highly questionable, it would be Michelle Belanger, but no – she just repeated the same judeo-christian nonsense without even paying attention to Enoch – which she referenced in her definition!! Didn’t anyone actually READ Enoch before repeating the fallen angel crap?? I read her entry, hoping to learn something interesting, and sighed heavily. Onward with the list:

7. Daniel is a fallen angel, the seventh mentioned of the 20 Watcher leaders of the 200 fallen angels in the Book of Enoch, who taught the "signs of the sun" to humans. The name is translated by Michael Knibb as "God has judged." Conversely, according to Francis Barrett in The Magus, Danjal is the name of one of the 72 holy angels bearing the name of God, Shemhamphorae.

8. Chazaqiel was the 8th Watcher of the 20 leaders of the 200 fallen angels that are mentioned in an ancient work called The Book of Enoch. The name means "cloud of God", which is fitting since it was said that Chazaqiel taught men the knowledge of the clouds, meteorology. Michael Knibb translates this angel as being the "Shooting star of God".

9. Baraqiel was the 9th Watcher of the 20 leaders of the 200 fallen angels that are mentioned in an ancient work called the Book of Enoch. The name means "lightning of God", which is fitting since it has been said that Baraqiel taught men astrology during the days of Jared or Yered. Some scholars believe that he is Sanat Kumara of theosophists such as Benjamin Creme and Madame Blavatsky; others believe that Sanat Kumara is a separate being. It has also been proposed based on a reconstruction by Schniedewind and Zuckerman that Baraqiel was the name of the father of Hazael, mentioned in the 9th century BCE inscription from Tel Dan. The biblical figure, Barak, known from Judges 4 is a shortened version of this longer name.

10. Asâêl, teacher of forbidden knowledge.

11. Armârôs was the eleventh on a list of 20 leaders of a group of 200 fallen angels called Grigori or "Watchers." in the Book of Enoch. The name means "cursed one" or "accursed one". The name 'Armaros' is likely a Greek corruption of what may be an Aramaic name; Armoni is possibly the original. Michael Knibb, Professor of Old Testament Studies at King's College London, lists the meaning of his name as being "the one from Hermon".

12. Batriel was the 12th Watcher of the 20 leaders of the 200 fallen angels that are mentioned in an ancient work called the Book of Enoch. The name is generally believed to be "valley of God" bathar-el and Babylonian in origin. Michael Knibb lists the translation for this Angel based on the Ethiopic Book of Enoch as "Rain of God".

Damien Echols Booksigning in Peabody

Back to magick.

I’d forgotten that Damien was book signing in Peabody until he tweeted it, an hour ahead of time. I vaguely remember, when I first heard about it, looking up the store online and thinking, “Can I stand on line that long?” Then I ended up figuring that might be problematic and had decided that I couldn’t.

Spent the morning doing other exhausting things I needed to do: a car inspection, grocery shopping, and then the fun of having to lug heavy bags of groceries, one by one, into the apartment. Then collapsing in pain and exhaustion.

But then, when he tweeted about needing to prepare for the Peabody appearance, I took off without even thinking about it – it was merely an irresistible urge to go. If I wanted to paint myself as a logical thinker, I might have said that I wasn’t sure I’d have the chance again. No way in hell you’d catch me in Salem (don’t ask me to explain why again!), so Peabody had to be it. But no, I didn’t even give it that much thought. It was just a sudden sense of urgency ... “GO”. And off I went. Didn’t even get dressed up for the occasion, just gimped out the door. I must have looked like hell, but didn’t care.

He’s, what, 10 miles away from me, at this appearance? A straight ten miles up Route 114! – and again, I got lost, by being caught on a “right turn only” lane in heavy traffic, and couldn’t move left – I have no idea where Lowell Road went to (I know it goes to Lowell! Besides Lowell, although I have no idea where that was, in relation to 114, or which direction it was headed) , but I was on it, couldn’t get turned back around and became hopelessly, hopelessly lost. As usual. I ended up banging on the steering wheel with both fists and screaming my utter hatred for the State of Massachusetts and everyone in it at the top of my lungs, crying uncontrollably, screaming curses at the State’s refusal to take good tax money and buy street and directional signs with it, instead of forcing us all to hear tale after tale of Massachusetts politicians snorting it up their utterly corrupt noses. See? Even heading in the direction of Salem was hell!

Finally had to ask for directions back to 114, after half an hour of trying to get turned around, but getting more and more lost. When I finally made it back to 114, I was stuck in pre-Christmas traffic. Then I thought the Barnes and Noble was IN the North Shore Mall but it wasn’t. Of course, I wouldn’t learn that until I’d managed to hunt down a space to park and limp my way into the huge complex. One week before Christmas – took another 30 minutes just to find a parking space. Then another 20 minutes trying to find one of their mall maps screaming (“You Are Here!”) – which the mall had stuck in out-of-the-way places. What they DID have easily accessible were pamphlets with print so small no one could read them. The pamphlet locations are easy to find: just search for clusters of squinting people asking each other, “Can you read what this says?”

And of course, the Barnes & Noble was not only not IN the mall, but it was on the other side of this huge complex, and there was NO WAY I’d find another parking space. I limped from one end of that awful place to the other in a heavy winter coat, dragging my bum knee behind me. Took me at least 45 minutes to gimp through that awful place being run down and bumped and pushed by teenage shoppers. Took me another 20 minutes to gimp through three parking lots, dodging killer women in cars, cell-phone chatting and texting as they sped through parking lots and pedestrian crossings, to the Barnes & Noble, wiping tears of pain and frustration from my eyes. I was so late and in so much pain I was sure he was gone by then, but somehow, by some miracle ... thank you Sekhmet ... he wasn’t.

I found myself at the very end of a dwindling line. The advantage to it was that I was able to manage standing (sort of, as long as there was a wall to brace my back against, or a shelf I could lean on), because I was so late that the worst of the line had already come and gone. It didn’t take that long. Coincidentally enough, they had put him under a sign that said “Learning”. I saw that sign and started to smile. How absolutely perfect was that!

I don’t want to repeat everything I told him, although I did say he didn’t have to sign the book if he was getting hand cramps, because I only wanted to say something brief. He responded with something sweet about if I could stand on line for him that long, how could he not sign the book?, and I remember thinking, “He’s so nice ...” – in fact, he was so nice, I didn’t want to confess the truth about the hell I’d gone through to get there – really! It took hours to go 10 miles! – and that I hadn’t stood on line all that long; just gimped through a killer mall. Which might have amounted to the same thing, but was nothing compared to what he went through, so I wasn’t even ABOUT to complain about it.

Anyway ... it was nice. I was able to tell him SOME of what I needed to tell him and that was all I wanted. And I have an autographed book. Oh yes, and I did make him chuckle mentioning that I could retire on what I could sell his first book for. He’s very easy to talk to. And what a soothing aura. Here’s what his aura reminds me of: the ability that Jackson Rathbone’s character has in the Twilight series: the ability to calm people into a peaceful state of acceptance just by looking at them. I wonder if Damien knows he has that ability. I relaxed so quickly just talking to him that a lot of the back stiffness I’d gimped in there with went away. And THAT was nice too.

So here was my badge of courage: the Sky Sadist had twisted my face with Bell’s Palsy and I had still worked up the courage to travel to New York to see Il Volo. Now the Sky Sadist had hairline-fractured my left kneecap (yeah, I haven’t mentioned that yet – sorry) so badly I could barely move, but I ignored it, listened to Sekhmet instead and went to Peabody to meet Damien – Mr. Signpost – even though I was afraid of looking like a deformed old crone. Fuck the Sky Sadist! And as I said, thank you Sekhmet. It did, it felt like I had earned the silver Badge of Courage, afterwards. It would have definitely been easier to stay home and hide.

Continuing with the Fallen Angels list:

4. Kokabiel, also spelled Kפkabמךl, Kפkhabמךl, Kakabel, Kochbiel, Kokbiel, Kabaiel, or Kochab, considered the 'angel of the stars,' is a fallen angel, the fourth mentioned of the 20 Watcher leaders of the 200 fallen angels in the Book of Enoch. His name is generally translated as "star of God," which is fitting since it has been said that Kokabiel taught astrology to his associates. According to The Book of The Angel Raziel, Kokabiel is a holy angel; in other apocryphal lore, however, he is generally considered to be fallen. Kokabiel is said to command an army of 365,000 spirits.

[An army of 365,000 spirits? For what?]

5. Tamiel, also spelled Tâmîêl, is a fallen angel, the fifth mentioned of the 20 Watcher leaders of the 200 fallen angels in the Book of Enoch. His name is generally translated as "perfection of God" (the combination of tamiym and El-God) but Tamiel is also called Kasdeja or Kasyade (meaning "observer of the hands") in the Book of Enoch, Chapter 69. Michael Knibb lists the translation of Tamiel as "God is Perfect" or "Perfection of God." Tamiel taught "the children of men all of the wicked strikes of spirits, [the strikes of] demons, and the strikes of the embryo in the womb so that it may pass away (abortion), and [the strikes of the soul], the bites of the serpent, and the strikes which befall through the noontide heat, [which is called] the son of the serpent named Taba'et (meaning male)" during the days of Noah, not the days of Jared.

6. Râmîêl is a fallen Watcher in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, one of 20 leaders, mentioned sixth. Ramiel means "thunder of God" from the Hebrew elements ra'am and El, "God". Remiel is one of the archangels of the Christian and Islamic traditions, the Hebrew name meaning "Mercy of God" or "Compassion of God" [wow, talk about your irony, eh?] (see Jerahmeel). He is often confused with Azazel who is also called Râmêêl ("arrogant towards God" or "evening of God") although they are not the same angel. Remiel is the angel of hope, and he is credited with two tasks: he is responsible for divine visions, and he guides the souls of the faithful into Heaven. He is called Jeremiel or Uriel in various translations of IV Esdras, and is described as "one of the holy angels whom God has set over those who rise" from the dead, in effect the angel that watches over those that are to resurrect. He is said to have been the archangel responsible for the destruction of the armies of Sennacherib, as well as being the bearer of the instructions of the seven archangels. He is mentioned also in 2 Baruch where he presides over true visions (55:3).

So obviously, none of the judeo-christian scholars can decide if he’s good or fallen ... which doesn’t say all that much for the judeo-christian scholars, does it?

Formless Voids, Putting Marduk back into Zagmuk and Other Nonsense

To finish up the Sumerian creation myth as related by Samuel Kramer: the Sumerians believed that the "primeval sea" existed first, and from the primeval sea arose a united heaven and earth – which were perceived as solid elements.

Try and picture that: heaven and earth – united. Solid.

Next step, and I quote: "Between them and from them came the gaseous element air, whose main characteristic was that of expansion. Heaven and earth were thus separated by the expanding element air." Hmm. Beginning to sound a little bit like the Big Bang must have looked?

And now, let’s take a peek at Line 1 of the Book of Genesis: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters." (Translation: New Revised Standard Version)

All together now: "Huh?"

Perhaps that should have been, "In the beginning – BEFORE god created the heavens and the earth – the earth was a formless void ...", because otherwise, it read as though their deity created the earth to be a formless void. Which – looking out the window – seems not to be an accurate statement, but what do I know? Maybe we ARE nothing but a hologram in a "formless void" generated by aliens on the far side of the universe!

Now ... correct me if I haven’t interpreted "formless void" correctly, but to me, "formless void" suggests ... oh, I dunno ... a formless void? An emptiness without any form? A completely empty space? Maybe even a negative space? So, if the earth was a literal formless void, how is there water on something that isn’t there? How can a "wind from God" sweep over the face of waters on a "formless void"? What are the waters sitting on? How did they get there? There’s no earth – it’s a formless void, remember – so there’s no gravity. If there’s any water at all – and this seems unlikely at this stage – it’s unattached to anything, even itself.

If you want to walk away from this discussion weeping copious tears of pity for the overwhelming stupidity of the American people, do a google search on "Images, formless void". Every single one of the so-called "creative artists" who pop up in that search gave full form to their "formless voids". Not a single one of them was able to grasp the concepts of "formless" or "void". You just sit there staring at the images with your eyes bugged out and your jaw dropped. All of them have form. None of them do NOT have form. All you can think of to say after viewing page after page of so-called "artwork" with the title, "Formless Void" is, "OMG, what a bunch of ..." You fill in the blank. Pitiful.

So is it possible one group (the Sumerians) saw the "formless void" as the "primeval sea", and the other group (the adherents to Genesis) actually thought "water" was intended and used the word "deep", even though that made no sense? The Sumerians were describing a "Big Bang" sort of event in the vacuum of space; the Genesites were describing a hurricane over water in a formless void?

So if An represents heaven and Ki represents earth to the Sumerians ... and the symbol of ankh represents the concept of eternal life to the Egyptians ... then that means ... NOTHING! Two different words and cultures; just seeing if you were awake. Although it does make you wonder how the word "ankh" was created within the Egyptian language, doesn’t it?

What it does mean, though: in this description, you can almost picture An and Ki as a yin-yang symbol, wrapped up into one sphere of sorts. Created TOGETHER. Neither one was formed out of the other; they were created as one, and then exploded apart from each other when air, or waves of energy, came between them.

The other version of that: An and Ki –alone there in the creation chamber with only themselves for ... entertainment ... made wild, uninhibited passionate love to each other, and BIG BANG! the cosmos came into being. Gives an entirely new dimension to the phrase "big bang", eh? We will now pause while the Beavis-es and Buttheads of the world giggle, "Big bang ... snark, snuffle, heh .... big bang ... snort."

Yes, I know I swore I would never make fun of teenage boys ever again, but sometimes, they’re just so ... predictable!

Anyway, about 5 years ago or so, there was a rush of christians running around yowling, "Put Christ back into Christmas!" – a saying which they SWEAR was meant to turn other christians away from the crass commercialization of the holiday, but which I remember as being directed mostly at non-christians for demanding equal time. No matter, the yowling itself inspired a counter-attack of t-shirts and posters yowling, "Put Marduk back into Zagmuk"! And in fact, the backlash was so virulent, I don’t recall that christians have made such an effort since then. Heh! Anyway, it wasn’t until this year that I got around to looking that up. And thank you, Wikipedia.

"Zagmuk, which literally means "beginning of the year", is a Mesopotamian festival celebrated the New Year. The feast fell in March or April and lasted about 12 days. It celebrates the triumph of Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon, over the forces of Chaos, symbolized in later times by Tiamat. The battle between Marduk and Chaos lasts 12 days, as does the festival of Zagmuk. In Uruk the festival was associated with the god An, the Sumerian god of the night sky. Both are essentially equivalent in all respects to the Akkadian "Akitu" festival. In some variations, Marduk is slain by Tiamat and resurrected on the vernal equinox.

In Babylon, the battle was acted out at the royal court with the king playing Marduk, and his son-rescuer as Nabu, the god of writing. Once freed from the powers of the underworld, the king would enact the rite of the Sacred Marriage on the 10th day of the ceremony. During this rite, the king (or En, as he was known in Sumer) would perform sexual intercourse with his spouse, normally a high priestess who had been chosen from among the naditum, a special class of priestesses who had taken a vow not of celibacy precisely, but of a refusal to bear children. The high priestess was known as the entu, and her ritual act of intercourse with the king was thought to regenerate the cosmos through a reenactment of the primordial coupling of the cosmic parents An and Ki, who had brought the world into being at the dawn of Time. If an eclipse of the sun fell on any of the 12 days of the ceremony, a substitute for the king was put in his place, since it was thought that any evils which might have befallen the king would accrue to the substitute instead. On the last day of the festival, the king was slain so that he could battle at Marduk's side. To spare their king, Mesopotamians often utilized a mock king, played by a criminal who was anointed as king before the start of Zagmuk, and killed on the last day.

In addition to the prisoner who was killed, it was traditional for one prisoner to be set free during this ceremony to provide balance. Thus, the background for what later became Easter is clearly visible here, for during Christ's crucifixion the thief Barabbas was set free and Christ was crucified at the behest of the crowd."

So now you see why at least the christians turned Marduk into something so evil: not only the sexual union between An and Ki being sacred, sex being the big bad No-No in the christian world, but because big chunks of their crucifixion story came directly out of the resurrection of Marduk mythology! Sometimes your jaw just continues to drop.

What’s laughable is that a bunch of dimwits from Sweden, trying to form what they called the "most blasphemous band in the world" named themselves Marduk and then pranced around the stage with fake blood all over themselves. Meaning only that for the title to be "blasphemous", they had to buy into the christian mythology to begin with, and are only shocking tight-laced christians, the poor silly little boys.

Anyway, here’s the REAL Marduk, the mighty, the powerful and strong, fighting Tiamat, the forces of chaos:

 

Sumerian Mythology, Seas of Octagons and Nobel Prize Concerts

Ahhhh, December. The month that makes you cringe because you should be doing stuff in preparation for the end of the month, but you’re not. I am slurping down a delicious split pea soup, though. One of the advantages of colder weather: you can enjoy all sorts of thick, hearty soups you normally don’t eat when it’s warmer.

A sudden onslaught of readers from Sweden (21 of them in one day) and the Netherlands (2, ditto) had me thinking, "Wha ...?" until I remembered the Nobel Prize concert, 3 days from now, in Stockholm. Well, hello, Sweden and Netherlands!

Anyway, It’s December. I’ve just finished reading Samuel Noah Kramer’s Sumerian Mythology* as preparation for the second "book" of poetry: "Paradise Lost" turned upside down.

I’ve written the first seven sets of verses, which, in my theological world, began with a dream. Difficult to explain: an endless field of octagons, brightly lit from within, moving gently, and within each, twin souls, wrapped around each other, like a "yin" and a "yang" symbol, but not exactly. The souls were cared for, but I have no memory from that dream of anyone or anything beyond what I’ve described: a distant view of the nursery, the knowledge that I began there and the touch of my soul mate. This was my "memory" of a "soul’s nursery". I also remember the music in this dream, which could never be recreated, as it consisted also of sounds and notes which don’t exist in our world, so I can’t even describe them, other than to say that the sound was the very source of bliss.
*Kramer, Samuel Noah. Sumerian Mythology: A Study of Spiritual and Literary Achievement in the Third Millennium B.C. Harper & Brothers, New York. 1961, Revised Edition. First published in 1944, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

I was reading the story of Ashnan (the much beloved and very ancient Sumerian grain goddess, "the wise") and Lahar ("the cattle god"). Ashnan, by the way, was ancient enough that She first appears in the Sumerian Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 B.C.E.) according to Black, Cunningham, Robson and Zólyomi in 2004. As I read, I came across this sentence: "in those days, in the creation chamber of the Gods ... Lahar and Ashnan were fashioned." (page 73). I stopped reading and said, "creation chamber ...!"

Okay, that may not have specifically referenced a "sea of clear octagons in a soul nursery", but that was the closest I’d come in my studies to something I had seen in my dreams.

Even more fascinating was seeing the earliest cosmological stories that found their way into the three major religions of that region, and knowing that so many people thought they had "the only correct belief", without any awareness of the origins of their belief systems. While quite a few people know that the deluge story did NOT originate with the Book of Genesis, but with the Epic of Gilgamesh,  many have no idea how important it was that their primary patriarch - Abraham, present in all three - was  Sumerian.

Abraham the Sumerian was the primary patriarch of at least three major religions; I’m guessing that not a soul within those belief systems knows that Abraham’s father was a powerful oracle within the Sumerian religion - basically a priest in the Sumerian magickal system. I’m also quite sure that no one within those belief systems understands that when they refer to the "God of Abraham", they are referring only to a household God within Abraham’s pagan household. One of the greatest Gods within the Sumerian system was certainly not an insignificant household god in one household, even though the patriarch of that household (Abraham’s father) was a powerful psychic and oracle in Sumer. No, one of the greatest Gods of Sumer at the time would have been the God that the bible trashed repeatedly: Marduk.

More later.
 

Piero Barone and his Marshmallows, Fallen Angels and More Coincidences

To one confused commenter/question-asker/truth-seeker (unpublished, because apparently I’m now the "Font of All Weird Miscellany That Has Nothing to Do With this Blog", don’t ask me why):

No, Piero Barone did NOT sing a song called, "Marshmallow for Toasting", the song you’re looking for is, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", a popular Christmas song written in 1963 by Edward Pola and George Wyle – so sayeth Wikipedia. Look for Il Volo’s mini-Christmas CD on Amazon. And actually, the line is "marshmallowS (plural) for toasting", I think, unless marshmallows are inexplicably scarce in Sicily, and Piero couldn’t imagine toasting more than one of them.
 

----------->

Not that I believe in coincidences...but if you knew anything about Mr. Signpost, you’d see the connection. Not only with "The Hobbit", but with both of them being in the same place at the same time. Why does it feel like everybody’s connected?

The second best part of Thanksgiving: the leftovers. Yum! A lot of the main meal is even better the next few days and even further if frozen. So, while I slurp up some egg-drop-leftover turkey & rosemary infused kale soup ... don’t ask for the recipe; I made it up as I went along and couldn’t recreate it even if I wanted to – let’s get back to the angels.

Less than one week after being released, Il Volo’s latest cd We Are Love went gold ... certainly on its way to platinum relatively shortly. I’m pretty sure they’re filming a performance video in New York, or at least they asked for NYC fans to check in for a private invitation to a performance. I am SO in the wrong state!! Argh.

But I still had to link to the first public performance of "Beautiful Day" - done on the Tonight Show.  My GOD, can that boy sing!  And they're all still teenagers!!

Oh, you thought I meant the OTHER angels?

I didn’t really explain my conclusion in my previous entry of the fallen angels being idiots and their deity acting like a spoiled two-year old, so I’ll do that now: the angels because, at least according to Enoch, they failed to react when their offspring ate all of the crops, and then started on the livestock, the wildlife and then the people.

These were the angels who taught people sorcery, astrology, geomancy, husbandry, plant division, etc., among other things – and they couldn’t figure out how to sow larger fields of crops to feed the offspring? They were magical beings, and couldn’t get the kids to stop gnawing on human bones? Riiiight. Another reason I doubt the story: all the way into the 18th century, human beings were spreading false rumors that their enemies were cannibals ... I’m guessing the Book of Enoch is where that habit got started?

Following this disaster, their deity’s reaction was ridiculous. "WHAT?? You wanna have sex with human beings? You’re damned to hell for all eternity and I don’t care how much you beg, I will NEVER ever ever forgive you!"

Well, okey-dokey, then! This deity apparently has real issues with sex, even though, according to the judeo-christian-mohammedan mythology, sexual relations was pretty much the only method by which human beings could manage to obey the directive to "be fruitful and multiply". And then, before they even got rolling on that directive, it became such a horrifying and sinful thing to do, it got Adam & Eve tossed out of Eden and got the angels sent to hell for eternity, no matter how much they begged for forgiveness. Nah, I suspect that the terror of women and sex came straight out of the so-called "minds" of middle-eastern men (who carry it around with them to this day) and into the quills of sex-starved and depraved monks and priests in the Middle Ages, writing flowery hymns about loving their fellow men ... while simultaneously cursing women as the source of original sin.

Things that make you go "huh?", to borrow from an oldie but goodie. Talk about your irrational temper tantrums from the deity who wants his followers to learn about "forgiveness" and "mercy", huh? Lovely. He sounds like an insane serial killer to me. Another reason I’m not thrilled with this source.

On the other hand, a lot of detail from this source made its way into the christian bible, so we might as well take it seriously as a reason for incubi being thought of by christians and their ilk as demons, rather than benevolent and helpful angelic beings who can make a woman deliriously happy at night and teach her all sorts of wonderful skills ... which, I must confess, is how I’m starting to view them.

Enoch did us at least one favor in the midst of his illogical ramblings: he listed the chieftains of the 200 angels, leaving out the part where he explains why angels actually NEED chieftains or whatever they’re called in the first place (what? they don’t have a direct line of communication to the Home Office? They’re bleeping ANGELS! Let me shoot the computer screen again):

And in doing so, enabled those of us paying attention to recognize that there is a grimoire of Turiel – one of the angels – out there somewhere. But then, I still get confused by grimoirian diagrams.

And these are the names of their leaders: 1. Sêmîazâz, their leader, 2. Arâkîba, 3. Râmêêl, 4. Kôkabîêl, 5.Tâmîêl, 6. Râmîêl, 7. Dânêl, 8. Êzêqêêl, 9. Barâqîjâl, 10. Asâêl, 11. Armârôs, 12. Batârêl, 13. Anânêl, 14.Zaqîêl, 15. Samsâpêêl, 16.Satarêl, 17. Tûrêl, 18. Jômjâêl, 19. Sariêl. These are their chiefs of tens."

R. H. Charles translation, The Book of the Watchers, Chapter VI.

OK, let’s not mention the fact that he only listed nineteen leaders, including Sêmîazâz. So we have eighteen leaders of 10 men (180 so far) and Sêmîazâz or Samyaza who led the 18 – for a grand total of 198. We’re missing 2. Anyone wanna explain the math of this? (Looking at watch). That’s OK, I’ll wait.

[Next day]

Wow, no wonder the United States is #17 in science and math. None of you could explain the illogical math! Just for the fun of it, I raised the same question to some Illuminati to see if THEY could explain it. Interestingly enough, this group of Illuminati have a different interpretation than Dan Brown’s best seller did. I distinctly remember Tom Hanks explaining the Illuminati being scientists bent on revenge in the "Angels and Demons" film where Ewan McGregor set himself on fire. The group I asked believes the Illuminati are the descendants of the Angels and women mating ... although this would not explain how they all survived the flood which was supposed to have destroyed them, and why they’re not still giants. I’ll let someone else figure THAT contradiction out.

[Next day] You don’t want to know what nasty pinheads THEY were.

Meanwhile ... I don’t really want to identify and explain all 19 angels in this one entry, so perhaps we’ll spread it out.

1. Samyaza (Aramaic:

שמיחזה, Greek: Σεμιαζά) also Semihazah, Shemyazaz, Sêmîazâz, Semjâzâ, Samjâzâ, Shemyaza, and Shemhazai is a fallen angel of apocryphal Jewish and Christian tradition that ranked in the heavenly hierarchy as one of the Grigori (meaning "Watchers" in Greek). The name 'Shemyaza[z]' means 'infamous rebellion', the combination of 'shem' [meaning 'name' or 'fame' {whether positive or negative}] + 'azaz' [which means 'rebellion' or 'arrogance' as a negative particle]. Michael Knibb lists him as "the (or my) name has seen" or "he sees the name". The interesting thing about the second interpretation is there is a tale about Semjâzâ knowing the explicit name of God and making a deal with a human Istahar to tell her the name.

Taught enchantments and divination.

Some suggest that Samyaza is most likely another name for Satan (Heb: 'the adversary'), who was originally an entity created in the service of God; he was the caretaker of God's throne, but later fell from the heavens because of his pride according to some Abrahamic traditions. Jesus states that he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning in Luke 10:18.

Others say that Samyaza should not be mistaken for another name for Satan, who some believe was "cast out" from the heavens because of his refusal to bow down to Adam as written in the Qur'an (7:11) and the pseudepigraphical Gospel of Bartholomew (IV:54-56).[2] This interpretation points to Rev. 12:9 and Gen. 6:4 as depicting two separate falls from heaven, one of Satan being cast down, the other of the sons of God choosing to come to earth to take human wives.

[I’m personally of the opinion that any ‘refusal to bow down to Adam’ – the ol’ cornerstone of the ‘men should rule the whole worrrld!’ society - should be met with a standing ovation and a promotion to the corner office, but that’s just me. Also, "pseudepigraphical Gospel of Bartholomew" refers to a text understood by most to be apocryphal (i.e., written well after the fact by a few centuries), describing a supposed conversation between Jesus and his followers over his descent into hell or Hades.]

2. Arakiel (Aramaic: פלא פקתן, Greek: ‘Αραθάκ Κιμβρά), also spelled Arâkîba, Araqiel, Araqael, Araciel, Arqael, Sarquael, Arkiel or Arkas, is a fallen angel ... who taught the "signs of the earth" (which suggests geomancy) to humans during the days of Jared. Arakiel is also called Aretstikapha (meaning "world of distortion" [the combination of arets + kaphah]) in Chapter 69. His name is generally translated as "earth of God"; the combination of araq-earth (Babylonian in origin) and El-God. Micheal Knibb lists him as a combination of two names "the land of the mighty one" or "the land is mighty".


More later

We Are Love, and More from Enoch

Ahhhhhh. Why do I keep forgetting from year to year how exhausting cooking a big meal is? Pause for a breather. All I have on the menu is the turkey, whipped potatoes with gravy, fresh green beans, a molded gelatin salad and poppy seed cake for dessert ... and as uneventful as that menu is, I feel like I’m serving an 8-course meal! Gelatin salad just went back into the fridge to finish setting up. Need to start the potatoes boiling and the giblet gravy in a new minutes ... and my least favorite part: turning the turkey over and praying I don’t drop it. Knowing me? Bets are being taken at the betting window.

So apparently I wasn’t the only listener who thought Il Volo’s We Are Love cd was an unbelievable second album.

Il Volo We Are Love Album Review

Sylvie Lesas on November 20, 2012

"Il Volo is back with their second album We Are Love. Co-produced by Grammy winning producer Humberto Gatica and Tony Renis, this cd sends chills down your spine from beginning to end. It is clearly a masterpiece.

Beautifully interpreted , the album is emotionally intense. Il Volo shines on the entire cd, offering perfect duets with Placido Domingo on Il Canto and Eros Ramazzotti on Cosi’ which is magnificent. They just take every song to another level. The harmony is flawless. The passion in their voices is pure delight whether on U2 cover Beautiful Day or the splendid version of the Aerosmith/Diane Warren Hit I don’t want to miss a thing. It is often even better than the original because the trio brings their unique touch of creativity. They also did justice to classics such as my first favorite Historia De Un Amor that tells the suffering after the death (or the loss) of a love. Just poignant.

Written by Diane Warren, I Bring You To My Senses is an upcoming hit. Non Farmi Aspettare is another highlight of this album and ends the album as strong as it began.

So We Are love is one of 2012 best albums. With their incredible voice on their debut record, they have conquered the world. With We are Love, Il Volo is going to dominate it."
http://evigshed.com/il-volo-we-are-love-album-revie/
Oooo, dominate. Yessssss. "One of 2012’s best albums"! I love it!

But moving forward:

This is the place. Stand still, my steed,

Let me review the scene,

And summon from the shadowy Past

The forms that once have been.

The Past and Present here unite

Beneath Time's flowing tide,

Like footprints hidden by a brook,

But seen on either side.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "A Gleam of Sunshine", 1846

Just finished reading a series of product reviews on Amazon and have a prediction to make:

My Prediction: In a very short time, scriveners will again become popular and useful in the United States. Start making your business cards now!

(Scriveners were the literate few who used to read letters to and write letters and other legal documents for, their illiterate customers). Just sayin’. I have never read so many garbled comments from so many people completely incapable of composing a literate sentence in my whole life. It’s mind boggling.

And speaking of idiots, back to my newly formed campaign to FREE THE INCUBI from the clutches of the christian and wiccan church ladies!!! (see last entry). Hmmm. I really need a better catch phrase than that, come to think of it. I might free the succubi, too, if I had some idea where they originated. Incubi I suspect may have originated with the angels described in Enoch, but succubi? I’m not sure yet. I read a website with stories of succubi, but all of the stories seemed to be about horny clerics blaming succubi for their own lust – after christians had already taken over the village and stomped around telling people they were sinners for doing what came naturally. Supposedly, Lillith was the first succubi, but I don’t know where that myth came from.

But back to Enoch and the the first band of angelic lovers. If you read this self-righteous judeo-christian tale of woe, you’re pretty much left with two conclusions: (1) angels are no more intelligent than the average human being (and that’s not saying much), and (2) their deity has the emotional maturity of a sulking, spoiled toddler, and that’s not saying much, either.

CHAP. VII [SECT. II]

1. It happened after the sons of men had multiplied in those days, that daughters were born to them, elegant and beautiful. [Why, thank you very much, yes we are!]

2. And when the angels, the sons of heaven, beheld them, they became enamored of them, saying to each other, Come, let us select for ourselves wives from the progeny of men, and let us beget children. [Now I realize this doesn’t particularly support the claim that incubi started here. If they did start here, you’d be reading that the angels said, "Wow! Check out those hooters! Let’s go have hot steaming sex with them after they go to sleep!" Instead they actually (oddly) want to get married and beget children. So, at this point, you’d think that wanting to get married and have children instead of deflowering virgins in their sleep would be a GOOD thing. But no.]

3. Then their leader Samyaza said to them; I fear that you may perhaps be indisposed to the performance of this enterprise;

4. And that I alone shall suffer for so grievous a crime. [Nowhere are we being told – yet – what the grevious crime is that Samyaza is convinced he’ll have to answer for. If I were a maiden and an angel visited me and asked for my hand in marriage, I’d certainly be surprised, but I might accept this as a compliment, not a crime. But what do I know?]

5. But they answered him and said; We all swear;

6. And bind ourselves by mutual execrations, that we will not change our intention, but execute our projected undertaking. [There are those who might think that this phrase, ‘mutual execrations’ means something like "mutual oaths", "mutual promises". But according to every dictionery I checked, the word ‘execration’ means a "curse", and not just a curse, but a curse combined with loathing. Enoch has apparently already passed a hideous judgment on these guys even before their deity did.]

7. Then they swore all together, and all bound themselves by mutual execrations. Their whole number was two hundred, who descended upon Ardis, which is the top of mount Armon.

8. That mountain therefore was called Armon, because they had sworn upon it, and bound themselves by mutual execrations. [Mount Armon is now known as Mount Hermon (photo), located on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights. In honor of the "curses" sworn there, Israel has built a ski resort and a motorbike trail. That would do it, I imagine. If the newly formed "Free the Incubi Group (FIG)" had a sacred ground, this might be it. Nah. Still don’t like the group title.]

9. These are the names of their chiefs: Samyaza, who was their leader, Urakabarameel, Akibeel, Tamiel, Ramuel, Danel, Azkeel, Saraknyal, Asael, Armers, Batraal, Anane, Zavebe, Samsaveel, Ertael, Turel, Yomyael, Arazyal. These were the prefects of the two hundred angels, and the remainder were all with them. [More on them later.]

10. Then they took wives, each choosing for himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees. [A-HA!!! Now we start to get some idea of what happened!! They turned the women into witches!!! I hope a mega-watt lightbulb just went on in some wiccan heads.]

11. And the women conceiving brought forth giants,

12. Whose stature was each three hundred cubits. These devoured all which the labor of men produced; until it became impossible to feed them;

13. When they turned themselves against men, in order to devour them;

14. And began to injure birds, beasts, reptiles, and fishes, to eat their flesh one after another, and to drink their blood.

15. Then the earth reproved the unrighteous. [I realize it’s to my own advantage to not believe this tale as it unfolds, but let’s toss some logic at this, shall we? Nowhere in this story does it say that the wives of the angels died screaming in agony as they were giving birth or trying to nurse these offspring. So, "brought forth giants" seems a bit of a stretch. True, the children could have shot up during puberty, but I’m going to put a bit more credence in biology and human DNA than the lack of logic we’re looking at here. But in a minute you’ll see why this story was invented. Version #1 of "THE FLOOD" is about to be written down. Enjoy.]

CHAP. VIII

1. Moreover Azazyel taught men to make swords, knives, shields, breastplates, the fabrication of mirrors, and the workmanship of bracelets and ornaments, the use of paint, the beautifying of the eyebrows, the use of stones of every valuable and select kind, and of all sorts of dyes, so that the world became altered. [Logic problems again. Enoch just finished saying the men were being eaten up by all of these so-called giants. Now he’s teaching them the art of warfare? Which sentence is actually true?]

2. Impiety increased ; fornication multiplied ; and they transgressed and corrupted all their ways. [Ahhh. That old bugaboo: fornication. Which was, I’m sure you’ll agree, the method that resulted in all of the "begetting" the judeo-christian text is so full of. What, every middle-eastern woman was capable of immaculate conception? No, dearies: begetting after begetting after begetting is a direct result of fornication. You may not like it, but you have to live with it.]

3. Amazarak taught all the sorcerers, and dividers of roots:

4. Armers taught the solution of sorcery;

5. Barkayal taught the observers of the stars

6. Akibeel taught signs;

7. Tamiel taught astronomy;

8. And Asaradel taught the motion of the moon.

9. And men, being destroyed, cried out; and their voice reached to heaven. [Again with the screwed up logic. How were the men destroyed? By their own recently-learned warfare, or by these so-called giants, who apparently did NOT destroy all the men, as Enoch said. Sounds to me like they did it to themselves. In any event, after a lot of military orders in Chapter Nine ("Michael! Gabriel! Go kick some angelic ass!"), here’s a line from Chapter Ten: "all the earth shall perish; the waters of a deluge shall come over the whole earth, and all things which are in it shall be destroyed."]

Ahhh, yes. The Flood. So which version is correct? This one? That one? Another decision to be made by people other than me, I suspect. I am discussing Angels who have sex with women.

If you look at the list of things they taught us – and by "us", I mean the women they turned into happy, sexually fulfilled witches – you can see why it is beneficial to christians to perpetuate the stories of these angels being demons. And they do to this day! In fact – and I find this astonishing! – even Satanists are happy to perpetuate the myth that Incubi are demons, and they’re the first people to jump up and down, claiming to be misunderstood! They are, actually, but they seem to be doing the same thing.

Next: the individual prefects of the 200 angels who love women.
 

Incubi come from Watchers?

Am relaxing this day before Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Thursday with a White Fluffy: 1 oz. marshmallow vodka, 1 oz. dark chocolate liqueur, 2 oz. cream, all poured over ice and garnished with marshmallows and cocoa powder. Yum. Tomorrow I’m going to taste absinthe for the first time – have my own glasses, sugar cubes and spoon! – expensive as hell, but supposedly heavenly. But first ...

Il Volo released their latest cd. (I would have said "second", but they released so many variations of #1 – Continental, Global, Spanish, French, Takes Flight/Live in Detroit – and I suppose the christmas mini-cd counted as something – I’m not sure what number this actually is). Anyway, they just released their latest cd.

You get so used to groups or solo artists releasing their first cd, a spellbinder, and then falling flat on the second ... even someone as talented as Vittorio Grigolo, whose classical crossover career fizzled as fast as an open bottle of coke in a desert ... but not so this one.

My jaw dropped again – this is actually better than the first one, and I didn’t think that was possible, because I adored the first one! Holy crap, these guys are awesome! I can’t even find a "least" favorite, and I could on the first one – ("Smile". They sang it beautifully, it was just a snoozer of a song).

Mr. Signpost tossed out one of the Native American Plagiarist’s insipid tweets again: "Unusual sights can fill the heart with great joy. Keep your eyes open for the odd and different." Well, okey-dokey dear! And you have a real Tinkerbelle Day too, ‘kaaaaay?

Of course, the very next thing I saw was this photo:

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of the members of Il Volo goofing off while getting ready for a concert in Los Angeles.

Keep in mind that this was one of their last concerts at the tail end of a long, three-month straight, country-wide tour of the states. They were three exhausted and punch-drunk teenagers, eager to go home ... so silliness was perfectly understandable to those of us who had working brains.

Ah, but America is so lacking in working brains and so overstuffed with pretentious church ladies, the reaction of the American Hissy Fit Society was utterly predictable. "Eeek!" "Put your pants back on!" "Ohhh NOOO!" "Can’t we just... sing?" ...

Perfect example of the puritanical nonsense most American women spew all over the place to the point where your fingers are literally itching to slap them silly. European women wouldn’t have even blinked; American women – some of them, anyway – were all in this flutter of despair that "da boys" had turned into lusty old men on them. I’m sorry, I started laughing so hard I almost fell out of my chair at some of their prissy, condescending church-lady nonsense.

***********************

Lost my train of thought. Incubus. I arrived back at the incubus question via the direct and roundabout way: a while ago, I discovered that I really missed my daily sonnet burning its way out of me – and while the agony that provoked them has lessened somewhat, the comfort derived from creating them has not. I decided to start writing again.

I thought I would venture off in a different direction with the second poetry series. My inspiration was found in Milton’s Paradise Lost – although when I say "inspiration", I actually mean that the more I read of it initially, the more I wanted to slap him too for allowing himself to be sucked into a mass delusion. On the other hand, the more I read about him, the less I was sure as to what he did believe. Some day, I may get around to reading a biography. Meanwhile ...

This is the bit that bothered me:

Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme

I do realize that the line directly after "Aonian mount" was a nod to either or both Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato or Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso but my irritation was his reference to the Greek gods and their creation being far inferior to his "Adam and Eve" story.

For the more under-educated readers, "Aonian mount" is a another way of saying "Ionian mount" which is another way of saying, "Greek mountains, such as Mount Olympus, which was the home of the Grecian deities." He’s basically saying, "They sucked; I win!" So, yes, he more or less comes across as the literary Sheldon Cooper of medieval poetry.

Second point being: a complete refutation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost is also possibly among those "things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme" (I suspect not but wouldn’t lay down a wager on it), but that’s the direction I wanted to go. I began this attempt a few weeks ago. And as I have decided that I also want to look down my upturned nose at poetry that doesn’t have a rhyming structure ... I ridicule him for his complete rhyming failure as well! BWAH-HA-HA!

So, speaking of Paradise Lost, and the urgent need christians have to demonize human sexuality ("Bad incubus! Bad! Bad!"), it made me wonder how many other spiritual beings were respected and even loved by the pagan world, and then turned into sexualized demons by christians.

For example, The Horned God was so demonized he appears regularly on your TV as Hellboy with his horns shaved off ... (and actually, I love Ron Perlman’s interpretation of him, so I’m not picking on Hellboy, believe me). But the Horned God was absolutely beloved in the pagan world, not made into something evil, as christians have done. Rather than draw from a variety of sources, I’ll quote from Wikipedia that the horned god was "associated with nature, wilderness, sexuality, hunting and the life cycle." I’m not sure this was one of the sources of sexuality and demons, but it certainly contributed. I’m not sure how far back that goes.

In the Book of Enoch. ("the wha ...?") we read an interesting story about The Watchers. The Book of Enoch is dated back to somewhere in the 3rd century B.C. Some of the mythology in Enoch is found in judeo-christian texts, but the larger version is only in Enoch. What makes Enoch interesting as far as research into incubi and sucubi is concerned? Angels falling in love with women and mating with them. But even that isn’t the whole story.

This may be one of the first mentions of situations which christians now call an "attack by an incubi". Basically, so Enoch reports, angels fell in love with human women, mated with them, and the resulting offspring were ... not particularly human, to put it politely.

But I’m not sure that was essentially correct. Enoch lists the band of angels who fell in love with mortal women; their leader’s name was Samyaza or Semjâzâ.

And here’s what I think may be the real source of the demonic attribute: "And the Lord said unto Michael [ this is Michael the Archangel]: 'Go, bind Semjâzâ and his associates who have united themselves with women so as to have defiled themselves with them in all their uncleanness."

Read that one again. They’re fallen angels not because they're evil or demonic, or have done anything awful or unlawful, but because they consorted with women ... who are UNCLEAN! Fallen angels? Demons. According to your local judeo-christian hate-spreader, THAT may be the real reason why incubi are demons: they are attracted to and have sexual relations with women!! My jaw dropped when I found this – if anyone else has any other ideas behind incubi being demons, I’m all ears.

In the meanwhile, I'm thinking we need to free the incubus and succubus from christian clutches and treat them with respect again.

 

A (Real!) Lust Provoking Spell from Ancient Greece

One of my favorite examples of a (legitimate!) Grecian love spell that incorporates all of the power of Eros, and definitely not the reason and sanity of Anteros: the passion, the insanity, the desperation, the urgency. Key players are: Apalos, who had the spell cast for him, and Karosa, the object of his uncontrollable lust. Try not to read this like the pursed lip wiccan church ladies, with one eye searching for a contemporary restraining order, and the other trying to remember the twitter account of the Wiccan Inquisition. (Dollars to doughnuts they’ve already given the Wiccan Inquisition my name anyway, so you have nothing to worry about.)

Instead, read it with one eye on the Eros-inspired erotically urgent desire that provoked this spell:

"Aye lord demon, attract, inflame, burn, cause her to swoon from love as she is being burnt, inflamed. Goad the tortured soul (psyche), the heart of Karosa, whom Thelo bore, until she leaps forth and comes to Apalos, whom Theonilla bore, out of passion and love, in this very hour, immediately, immediately, quickly, quickly ... do not allow Karosa herself, whom Thelo bore, to think of her own husband, her child, drink, food, but let her come melting for passion and love and intercourse, especially yearning for the intercourse of Apalos, whom Theonilla bore, in this very hour, immediately, immediately, quickly, quickly."
Source: Faraone, Christopher. Ancient Greek Love Magic. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA), London. 1999. Spells for Inducing Uncontrollable Passions (Erōs), page 59.

Now ... did Karosa, the object of this spell, actually spin on a dime, run away from her husband and child and run to Apalos’ home for a wild and crazy night of never-ending sex?

"Of course she didn’t!" snaps a pretentious know-it-all from Yale. "They didn’t even HAVE dimes in ancient Greece!" (*sigh*)   See, and this is exactly why you Yalies get beaten up all the time.

It is this sort of spell that has today’s wiccan women all a-twitter. They insist that Apalos, by not asking Karosa’s permission to cast this spell, has interfered with Karosa's free will - proving that none of them have any idea what true "free will" actually is - and messed up his own karma, completely forgetting that:

(1) his karma is none of their business and none of them are in any position to judge or evaluate such things in the first place, and,

(2) Karosa had plenty of options available to her as well, and her "free will" is fully intact. Karosa (assuming Apalos was more or less an overheated weirdo following her around and drooling unattractively) could just as easily have had someone whip her up a counter curse designed to rebound HIS spell.

Here’s an example: "May Apalos’ lust be reflected off of me and be turned in another direction, and cause him to fall madly in love with a crazed bull."

Source:  Me!  I made it up!  Just now!!

We’ve just come up with our very own restraining order, and Apalos is now entertaining the townsfolk being chased by a crazed (and seriously pissed off) bull through the local pasture.

If, on the other hand, Apalos was a serious stud, Karosa might have chosen to let herself be caught up in his wild, insatiable lust. Could be fun! And what would have happened if either one of them had stopped to ask the other for permission? 

If any bad karma is going to rebound on anybody, I’m guessing it’s going to land squarely on the heads of the dainty, inept little twinkie witches of the 21st century for failing to impart any real power or strength to the budding witches they should be training properly, and for turning nights of wild,  crazy, lustful and passionate sex into a frowning old biddy lecture on mathematically calculated possibilities, requiring a frown, a slide rule and a protractor. No wonder Eros is depressed these days.

More later.