Saturday, October 31, 2015

I am a Witch All Year.

"When people hear "Witch" most will associate it with an evil woman with a big nose, pointed black hat and a broomstick.

Most are unaware there is a community within Central Michigan University that identifies as Witches year-round.

The end of October is a sacred time for many religions, specifically those who practice Witchcraft and other contemporary Pagans. Their holy day, Samhain, the traditional Celtic holiday focused on the end of the harvest and preparations for winter, falls on Halloween.

Practicing Witchcraft as either a Witch or Wiccan usually falls under the umbrella of Paganism, explained religion professor Dr. Laurel Zwissler. Paganism is usually classified as the practice of reviving ancient religions in conjunction with a spiritual appreciation for the earth.

"There are so many misunderstandings about what Witchcraft as a religion is, it makes sense to me that a lot of people would choose to be a little more private about their beliefs," Zwissler said. "I do know there is a Pagan presence on campus."

The population of people who practice Witchcraft is difficult to track, mostly because of the stigma attached to the minority religion, and lack of brick and mortar places of worship, Zwissler said. In popular culture Witches are typically portrayed as cartoon characters and are demonized. The fictitious myth of a Witch that exists in the media does not reflect people who actually practice the religion, but is still associated with them. That does not stop some, however, from practicing their religion despite negative backlash and lack of religious diversity on campus.

Roze Bentley has identified as a Witch for 20 years. The Mount Pleasant student is studying religion and said she instantly found a community within a registered student organization formed for religious diversity, Open Grove Society, upon arriving at CMU.

“A lot of people have a very negative, visceral reaction to the word ‘Witch,’” Bentley said. “There’s a stereotype of a harmful person, and really the religion is completely the opposite of that."

Witchcraft practices have deep roots in feminism, and have self-care as a central message to the faith.

"I think the reason we still claim that title is because we’re willing to identify with the least of us," Bentley said.

Bentley said reclaiming the stereotype is an act of empowerment, and taking a stand against stereotypes. That is one of the reasons she dresses up as a “stereotypical” Witch for Halloween.

“It’s sort of symbol reclaiming,” Bentley said. “The whole idea of when we gather together and use those symbols, it’s to set the space apart.”

Bentley said being apart of Pagan groups on campus is helpful because they are inclusive and welcoming, even though she is disappointed Open Grove Society is less active this year.

Reviving and practicing historic, ancient religions is a big part of being Pagan.

“It is a mish-mash of different traditions pulling all together and saying, ‘OK, we want to preserve some of this (over this) other overwhelming perspective,’ so in that way it is sort of an underdog faith,” she said.

Bentley said she is cautious of cultural appropriation in her own practices, especially when exploring religions in cultures that are still being practiced today.

“While I really love to celebrate Day of the Dead, I try to be a little more careful about it because I’m not actually Mexican, I just grew up around it,” she said.

Bentley said because of the stigma attached to being Pagan, Witch or Wiccan, practicing these minority religions involves a sort of “coming out” to family and friends about one’s spiritual identity.

The Dogma-Free Society is a registered student organization on campus that promotes religious diversity, focusing on Atheism, which sometimes faces stigmas as well.

"We're definitely interested in being able to promote freedom of religion and from religion," said vice president Kaylie Johnson. "Every student should be able to practice whatever they want without facing stigmas."

Johnson said she has heard of people practicing Witchcraft, and knows there is a bad stigma usually attached to identifying as a Witch or Wicca.

"I don't think people should judge or base their ideas of what Wiccans are from what is portrayed in the media,” she said. “People should cherish their diversity by being out about it if it's safe.”

Johnson said she faces stigmas for being nonreligious as well.

"If people assume everyone is the mainstream religion of Christianity, it's like we don't exist," she said.

Bentley explained some of the stigmas attached to Witches are that they are "drawn to evil things" have derived from movies and pop culture.

“I think the biggest area of (negative) stereotypes is that Witches are drawn to dark archetypes,” Bentley said. “We believe really strongly in balance and that you have to have the dark to have the light. A fair number of us have seen some dark things in our lives, and in some ways that brings comfort.”

Witchcraft was formed in medieval times when Christian leaders lumped together all non-Christian religions and called them “Witchcraft.” The movement of reviving the traditions of folklore is practiced today by contemporary witches like Bentley.

“There is no coherent Witchcraft tradition, there was never anything like that, there were different people in different places who did stuff that wasn’t Christianity,” Zwissler said. “The language that the church developed for all of those things that weren’t Christianity — they gave it a single name and they called it Witchcraft."

In terms of diversity of religions represented on CMU's campus, Zwissler thinks there is room for improvement.

"Mount Pleasant has many churches, but not a lot of other kinds of religious places (of worship)," Zwissler said. "This means that as a community, we are missing out on a lot of what goes on because there is not a lot of public space for people to talk about what is important for them if it’s not mainstream Christianity."

Canton senior David Nymberb is a member of St. Mary’s University Parish. He said religious diversity on campus is a good thing because of the exchange of different ideas it allows.

“Of course minority religions are welcome,” Nymberb said. “Neither campus nor the Catholic church is exclusive.”

He said if the topic came up and a witch was willing to have a civil conversation about their religion, he would be willing to talk it through with them.

“We’ve been taught to be as understanding as we can, but not to the extent where we compromise our own beliefs,” Nymberb said. “Our goal would be to explain our side. If they can agree with that, that’s great, but if not, we’ll leave it there. We won’t try to force the issue or anything like that.”

Bentley celebrates Samhain with other Pagans by performing a ritual where they each name the deities and ancestors they plan on honoring. The Witches form an altar in memorial for them. They also take part in a potluck dinner where they try to bring favorite recipes of their family members who have passed on.

There are eight major holidays most Witches recognize and some choose to celebrate with a community of Wiccan or Witches. Most Pagans use the Celtic Wheel of the Year, a calendar that marks holidays on the equinoxes, solstices and the midpoints between them.

The holidays will often match up with holidays on the American calendar, like with Samhain and Halloween, and Yule and Christmas.

“It’s not untrue that we do spells," Bentley said. “Spellwork is generally aimed at the person performing the spell.”

She said there is such a thing as negative spells, or hexes, but most Witches will never use them, because it is the same as self-harming — putting negative energy into the world that will also effects the spell caster negatively.

Zwissler explained spells as setting goals.

“A spell is a fancy way of saying they put mental energy into imagining the world in a way that they want it to be,” Zwissler said. “If you imagine your problem already solved, then you can shift your own attitude and attitudes of the people around you to help make that real.”

In terms of day-to-day-practice, Bentley said she has a meditation space in her home where she has incense. She also journals and keeps notes on her rituals, and uses it as a way to find personal power and get to know herself. Keeping records of thoughts and meditation is important in Witchcraft, Bentley said. Some call journals their “Book of Shadows.”

Courses related to Witchcraft being offered next fall include REL 302: Witchcraft, Magic and the Occult, and REL 303: Goddesses."

Source and Full Article
http://www.cm-life.com/article/2015/10/witchcraft-on-campus

The Last of the Granny Witches

"We are a peculiar breed. Our roots grow deeper than the cedars, and yet we don’t know precisely where or who it is that we grew from. We are a mystery as old as these hills themselves, and it doesn’t take much figuring to know that we are enigmas of intentional design and destiny.
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God knows our names.
We are not Northerners — damn Yankees, the men folks’ Confederate influence called them — and this we know without a doubt. I myself was always preened into believing I was a Southern child, born out of notions of gallantry and romance, but the fact is, I ain’t a low country belle and I’ve never picked a shred of cotton or been to a debutante ball.
We are not peaches.
And these mountain women before us were not delicate flowers or distressed coquettes. In these old heirloom hills, the women are as tough as the men, and then some. There was only one person Papaw was leery of, and that was Mamaw. No, you are not a peach, never mind how long you’ve thought you were or the times your daddy said so. No, you’re not. You are not easily bruised fruit. The blood in our veins is laced with old magic and the secrets of the noble savants before us.
We are the last of the granny witches.
The old ones, the original Appalachian queens, were daughters of the Celts and the offspring of Druids and medieval mavens and the natives of the old world craft, and we are their children. And although we are indeed as mysterious as these old hills, we still have that Celt and Cherokee elder magic in our bones.
I have beheld divination in my grandmother’s kitchen as she would foretell future events spelled out in the remnants of black tea or coffee grounds on the bottom of a common porcelain cup. With my own eyes I have witnessed warts and scars blown clean off the skin with nothing more than a believing breath and a skyward nod towards The Maker. Those magic women, those healers of wounds and tellers of fortunes and hex casters never considered themselves anything but noble and proud and God-fearing, and it didn’t bother them to be called a granny witch or a bee charmer or a medicine woman. These were gifts to them from the Divine.
And I recall bed sheets over mirrors in rooms where some tired soul had just given up the ghost. Nobody wants to be haunted forever, not even by somebody they once loved, and so they cover up the mirror so the spirit won’t see themselves and linger around. Ain’t a’ one of us needs a specter in the house. That’s why Sister Brown paints her ceiling haint blue. You just never know and can never be too sure. Some folks don’t know when to leave, even after they’re dead. And the horseshoe hanging upright above the front door won’t do a thing for the spirits, but at least your luck won’t ever run out.
And you do such things yourself, too, and likely have never spent a juncture of a thought as to why, or from where or who, or for what consequence. I would wager you’d never pick up a coin that’s face down or cross the path of a black cat without blessing yourself (or at least thinking that you’re not superstitious anyway and you convince yourself there’s no need give that cat a second thought), and your very blood will chill when a broken clock starts a tick-tick-ticking again, for you already know what that means, and it’s not to tell the time.
There once was many more of us, back in the old days when it seemed like God was sleeping somewhere over on the mountain and the old ones ruled the land and fended for themselves. But that time has long gone. We must work harder to preserve our magic, for it is fading into the background noise of technology and naysayers and law men that tell us we are common simple folk and feed us pills and poverty to quiet us. I fear that we are truly the last of the granny witches, the last tellers of tales, and that will be the end of our magic.
Some of us have already lost it.
But that old blood still courses through my veins, and perhaps you can feel it, too, when the sparrow smashes against a window or the cow moos after dark. What we send out into the yonder surely comes back home to us, eventually. It always has.
Send out your magic. Don’t be the last of your kind. We are the daughters of the Celts and the offspring of Druids and medieval mavens and the natives of the old world craft. And yes, God knows your name. Tell your tales and bewitch history, just like the mother mountains with her ages of charm and mystery, where peaches have never grown."

Source and Full Article
http://appalachianink.net/2015/09/06/the-last-of-the-granny-witches/
Earth Life is So Beautiful at times. Unbelievable so. Spirit, I am so glad to have experienced Mother Earth in such a way. I cannot help but grieve, at times, how hard Earth life seems to be, the emotion, the loss, the pain of war, disease, suffering and even love, takes a hold of me and almost paralyzes the Power I know I have in me, eternally and unconditional.

At times my physical body, my stomach is pulled into itself in physical gut wrenching pain, caused by something non-physical, by loss, by grief over what has happened to myself, those I love, those around me, or the perceived injustice of other people’s choices and roles they play on Earth to experience, to grow, to learn, to Journey.

Forgetting that this is simply to be observed, not judged and perhaps even not helped. I, at times, took in the pain deeply and lay down my Earthly body in internal tears for so much that I could not control. I forgot my power, my ability to step of the line per say, and I allowed myself the experience of deep pain, suffering and grief, simply to experience this Earth drug, this illusion, this gut wrenching human experience.  Until I could look up, remember and keep moving to the task in which I came here to Earth, knowing that God is inside, and the my thoughts, my energy, my mind, my ME controls my perception, my attraction, my experience and the Journey or parts of it in which I chose, I choose to experience this go around on this planet in this body, aligned with my ancestors and their choices.

~ Reverend Crystal Raven
from Earth Journals

Friday, October 30, 2015

This woman was talking to me once about how much she loved her husband, and I was very happy for her, she seemed so happy in general. I asked what she loved most about him, she said he "let's me" do what ever I want. My stomach turned insides out. It felt so parental, so the Dad to me. To her is was a very good thing as she had been with men who did not "let her" do what she wanted.

To me this is sick and not a lifestyle I would live, whereby someone "let's you" do what you want or would naturally be doing if they did not exist as some authority figure letting you do what you want. 

To her it was amazing because she could have a man in her life, have a relationship, home and still be who she wanted to be for herself. That is nice yes, however, the next step would be to just be yourself without needing a partner or spouse's permission for your every move.

Anyone "letting you" do what you would just do if you lived alone or were single, well that is oppressive, that is controlling and abusive

Someone "letting you" hang out with the girls, take a class you want, join yoga, go bowling, or really do anything you want and know is best for you, well that is saying that you are NOT in control of you but instead your every move and decision is based on the approval of someone else, the "letting you" of someone else.

Until you have Truly been Free, you may not understand this. Once you live alone for a period of time and have your home, curtains, floor, walls, chairs, music, environment, lawn, bedding, food, knick knacks, spirituality, just how you want.

You may not know what you like, how you really want to live or who you are and are just fine with someone letting you do this or that based on what they like or know to be how things are SUPPOSED to be. However, once you know and truly love you, you don't want to live like that. Yes you may make compromises, however, I believe there is room for both and not a meet in the middle version that is neither one of you. If you cannot FULLY be the real you then you are in the WRONG Relationship Period. 

Once you know who you really are, you will attract a partner that is really a good fit with your REAL SELF.  You will not want to be with someone who "let's you" do anything but instead someone who does them with you and you actually want to be with and someone who "let's you" LET YOU do whatever you want with your life, body, dress, education, lifestyle and YOUR YOU ~  Reverend Crystal Cox
It is not enough to have a partner who "supports" your views and belief system. Living with someone who has a dramatically different spiritual and lifestyle belief is constantly oppressive. I still find it so odd when people say well he is very supportive of my pursuit of this or that. Though he don't believe in it, validate it, trust it nor believe it has any merit what so ever based in reality, he is supportive that she does it. To me it is so oppressive if you are trying to live a healthy life for you and your partner does not "believe in" say organic eating, spiritual beliefs or other things that are important to you. Is it really love and a relationship or is it tolerating and supporting each others VAST and dramatic differences. It is very hard to build a life of your total belief system when your partner is "ok" with you doing it, and "supportive" but basically thinks it's full of shit and does not believe in it. This is not a way of life that will move you into the lifestyle you truly want to be living.  ~ Reverend Crystal Cox.
Free Energy has ALWAYS existed. Greed has not let you have it. This way they can, keep you feeding the monster, feeding them money and energy.  The system is set up to force you to pay greedy companies money to warm your home, power your cars, charge your batteries. The owners of the companies get block grants, tax credits, low interest loans. grants and other free money to create these jobs for you. That money could be given directly to you through basic income programs, that topic for another day.

Electric Bills, Gas Bills, ENERGY ENERGY, OIL OIL and none of it was ever needed. Perpetual Energy Machines, Tesla Technology, Solar, Wind, Water Energy, Tides creating energy; all this has ALWAYS been available yet we are forced to pay for electricity and pay big. This keeps down our quality of life and keeps us stuck at jobs that suck out life force. We must demand access to Free Energy inventions and not let Politicians favor Corporate Greed over our Quality of Life.  Energy is from the Great Spirit and it is and has always been FREE. ~ Reverend Crystal Cox

Life is Sacred

6600 people a day coming to Europe to get away from war. They would rather risk dying then stay.

Leaving Syria, Leaving Iraq.

It always breaks my heart that War does not see humans as human, as living beings, so precious and having value. War has no meaning. Those who want to Play War games should be taken to another planet where war games can play all day every day.

Human Life Matters. These are Real Lives. The military complex. Military as an industry, War as a lifestyle is Not Sacred. I Pray that the Truth of what is really going on in Syria, in Iraq, in our name and with our Tax Dollars, which is our energy, will be revealed and the LIGHT will permanently win over the Dark. ~ Reverend Crystal Cox

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Mother Sophia

"Now a gnostic tale, as it were, based on the sacred truths in ancient sources during the manifestation of the Christos. In those days, among the many groups Gnostics, there arose a teaching of a most profound nature which you will perhaps find intriguing. Teachers such as Valentius and others, it seems, received visions of the divine Sophia and told sacred stories about Her origins, fall and redemption. As a modern Gnostic i recast this story for your contemplation and symbolic illumination.

*******

It seems that once there was only the Fore-Creation, invisible, without form or gender, all-pervasive, filling the depths and heights of what was and which, desiring to manifest an inward potential gave birth to many holy dyads...that is, pairs, the first of which were the Abyss and Fore-thought. Then a desire arose in Fore-thought and it meditated on Silence who conceived and gave birth to twins: the first visible female form called Truth and the first visible male form called Mind, in turn they together gave birth to Life and Word...Life was the form-mother of the Pleroma and Word was the form-father of those manifest within the Pleroma. The Pleroma is the fullness of the spiritual world, uninfluenced by matter, energy or light.

Many other dyads were born, called Aeons, or sacred powers, the last of which was the divine Sophia, or Holy Wisdom. Of all the Aeons, the divine Sophia desired most intensely to know the origins of Her own creation, that is, the nature of the Fore-Creator. Though Mind told Her that such knowledge was impossible, nevertheless, Sophia began to search high and low, after Mind was restrained by Silence. None of the Aeons comprehended the Fore-Creation other than Truth whose perfect reflection was a transparent presence invisible to Sophia. She separated Herself from Her consort, ranged the vastness of the uncreated Immensity, and far out- distanced all the other Aeons.

Sensing her separation from the other Aeons, and lacking a clear knowledge of the Fore-Creator, She felt pain and sorrow, She wept and grieved deeply, She desired with all Her Heart to comprehend the vast, unending totality of the Fore-Creator, also called the Abyss. But the Abyss was vast beyond comprehending, and Her sorrow increased and Her passions flowed out of Her in waves and She risked utter dissolution into the Abyss as She radiated forth a turbulence into the stillness of Immensity. Then, suddenly, She encountered Horos, the Limit, Boundary, and understood that the Fore-Creation was unknowable, holy and profound, beyond the comprehension of Mind, Word or even Truth. This was the First Gnosis.

But now, the manifestations of Her intentions and passions remained as viable presences in the Immensity, they overflowed the Pleroma and began to take on a more substantive appearance. Sophia beheld these manifestations, the consequences of Her passions, and was again stirred with grief, fear, uncertainty and sorrow because She understood that these were the manifestations of Her own ignorance concerning the Fore-creation. A dim, barely light-like haze began to appear, first manifestation in the Primal Void, the concatenation of passion and desire unfulfilled, slowly evolving into manifest forms--the stirrings of light, energy and chaos.

All the Aeons together were concerned about the appearance of Chaos and so they, with the divine Sophia, prayed in depth and a new dyad was manifested: Christos and the Holy Spirit, his female counterpart. Together, they calmed the Aeons and soothed their fears, also instructing them in the unknowableness of the Fore-Creation while simultaneously revealing to them the inner unity, harmony and illumination of the Pleroma--this was the Second Gnosis. Yet, the haze and proto-forms of Chaos remained and among these emerging forms was an image of Sophia, called the Lower Wisdom, for She had divided Herself in the passion of her search and now, the Lower Wisdom abided in the midst of Chaos.

This Lower Wisdom desired to return and be united with Her own Higher Self, rather than remain trapped in Her passions and desires and when She felt the emmanations of the Holy Spirit and the Christos, when they manifest their healing and harmony within the Pleroma, She began to seek a way to return to the primal harmony and illumination of the Second Gnosis. And when Lower Wisdom discovered that She was bound by Limit and could not return or ascend to the Pleroma, She once again grieved and sorrowed. And from this second grief, from the waves and energy of that sorrow, the first material substances began to form, divide and align themselves in patterns of light, dimness and darkening matter. Then the Aeons together ask the Christos to assist the Lower Sophia and He manifested in the lower world of proto-matter as Yeshu'a, and soothed Her and comforted Her and revealed to Her all the many luminous beings that manifested in the Void as their spiritual companions."

Source and Full Article
http://www.gnosis.org/sophia.tale.html

The Gnostic Scenario of the Earth Goddess Sophia

"Galactic Dynamics

Framed in mythological language, this fallen goddess scenario (FGS) describes the core of our home galaxy as a vortex of infinite potential (Pleroma: fullness, plenum) consisting of massive serpentlike entities or torrents. The gods and goddesses of the Pleroma are called Aeons in the Gnostic writings. They are gendered male and female to describe different types of dynamic activity, like positive and negative charges of electric current, or the attractive and repulsive poles of a magnet. The Aeons are divine: that is, luminous, radiant, emanating light. They are also alive and intelligent and capable of feeling, perception, and desire, but on the level of cosmic consciousness. From the glossary of Not in His Image:"

Source and Full Article
http://www.zengardner.com/gnostic-scenario-earth-goddess-sophia/

Sophia, the Mother of the Universe

"Are you feeling a change in the spiritual energy on our little blue planet? Humankind has gone from ordinary people to super enlightened beings, creating books, movies, and lecturing on many of the hot spot topics that we have dared not to address in the past. Topics like women’s rights, sex trafficking of children, and the possible destruction of our planet.

Most important, people are beginning to question the creation story that has been past down for centuries, by the patriarchal religions. At the base of this mystery of creation is Sophia, “Mother of the Universe” and why she has been purposely annihilated from the creation story?

Sophia, Wisdom, has been known for eons by many cultures, and by many names. She has been called, Breath and Light, Love and Light, Great Goddess, Mother of all Creation, Pure Light, Holy Sacred Sophia, Life-creating Sophia, Mother of all Gods, and Wisdom of God.

The Gnostics (pre-Christian) called her the feminine aspect of God, the syzgy of Jesus Christ. Jesus called her The Holy Spirit of the Trinity, Expression of the Emanation of the Light of God, Holy Sophia, Creator, Ruler of both Heaven above and Earthly realms below. Sophia was recorded in ancient documents as being embodied in Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene.

Why do most people know little about her, and what part she played in the creation plan? Sophia recorded by many great ancient civilizations, and spoken of in love and honor by Jesus Christ, but given no appropriate position, why?


THE GREEKS CALLED SOPHIA, QUEEN OF WISDOM

The Jews called Sophia the Wise Bride of Solomon. Early Christians called her Holy Spirit of Wisdom; she was Chokmah in Spanish, and Sapientia, in Latin. The Catholic Church called her Wisdom Incarnated, The Goddess of all those who are wise. She has been called Lilith, Isis, Ishtar, and Hathor, Hecate (Mother of the Angels) many more names by other religions and cultures.

Source
http://omtimes.com/2013/07/return-of-sophia-mother-of-the-universe/

the Fallen Goddess

"The story of the Fallen Goddess is only found in Gnostic materials, and even there it only survives in fragmentary form.

(Technically, this story is a cosmogony - a description of how a world system or cosmos originates - but it is more easily treated as a cosmology, the description of how a world system operates, based on how it originated.)

Fortunately, the slim evidence for Gnostic cosmology is supported by an array of classical lore, cross-cultural mythology, and indigenous wisdom.

In Greco-Roman mythology, for instance, the theme of "the marriage of Ouranos and Gaia" asserts a special link between the celestial realm and Gaia, the living earth. Ouranos, the Greek word for "heaven," refers to the Pleroma, the realm of the gods, or, in astronomical terms, the galactic core.

The mythic "marriage" of the Pleroma and Earth is consistent with the Gnostic scenario of the Aeon Sophia who plunges from the galactic core to be metamorphosed into the planet we inhabit. Sophia is exiled from the Pleroma and "grounded" in the terrestrial domain, but precisely because of the unique conditions under which earth was formed, our planet remains intimately linked to the cosmic center, the galactic core itself.

I have argued elsewhere in this site that a great deal of mythology can be read as astronomy. (This can be done without going as far as Santillana and von Dechend who propose in Hamlet's Mill that myth is nothing but encoded astronomy.) The transposition of myth into astronomy is, of course, a creative act that requires the use of imagination - hence, an exercise of mythopoesis, intentional myth-making.

The Gnostic creation myth provides a unique set-up for such an exercise because it presents just enough enticing clues to whet the imagination and make us try to picture what happened to the Pleromic Goddess, Sophia. What we know today about the large-scale structure of the galaxy, the birth of the sun, the formation of the planets, and the current position of the solar system in the galactic limbs, presents a unique opportunity to re-evolve Gnostic cosmology into a visionary model of our own making.

Doing so, we come to participate empathically in the experience of the Earth Goddess, Gaia-Sophia.

As suggested in Sharing the Gaia Mythos, the purpose of humanity in Gaia's life-process may reside in on our capacity to remember Her Story. Metahistory involves not only a critique of history and the beliefs encoded in it, but also a creative recalling of the mythic dimension of our own species story.

In this respect it should be clear that the reason for converting the mythico-mystical language of Gnosticism into the concepts of modern astronomy is not to use science to legitimate Gnostic vision, but to link our current picture of the cosmos to an ancient seminal visionary experience whose slight traces can be discovered in Gnostic writings.

Even with clear correlations, however, it is extremely difficult to construct a coherent version of the Fallen Goddess scenario. Considered strictly on the basis of surviving texts, there is no "Gnostic cosmology," or almost none. The textual material is in some instances - in most instances, it must be said - corrupt and unreliable.

The Nag Hammadi "library" is a pitiful heap of remnants, like a handful of glass shards from a shattered stained-glass dome.

These documents were translated into Coptic from "Greek originals," scholars say, but there is no way to know if the Greek texts themselves were actually first-hand Gnostic writings. After countless readings, I am inclined to see these texts as study notes, and in rough and incomplete form. The Coptic reads like a slapdash translation made by scribes who did not altogether understand what they were translating.

Fifty fragmentary documents whose content is largely incoherent and maddeningly inconsistent - this is all that remains of what once was countless thousands of parchments and codices, including many works on geology, astronomy, and mathematics, known to have been written by initiates of the Mystery Schools.

To fill in what is missing or badly preserved in the Coptic treatises from Nag Hammadi, we must turn to paraphrases found in the polemics of the so-called Church Fathers who opposed the Gnostics. For the scenario of Sophia's fall and subsequent embodiment as Gaia, for instance, we have to rely on Irenaeus, a Christian bishop who wrote Against Heresies around 180 CE.

A full-scale narrative describing how Sophia becomes Gaia cannot be developed without making huge inferences.

The Fallen Goddess scenario relies at key points on extrapolating broadly - and, one might say, boldly - from the slim evidence on hand."

Source
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/gaia/esp_gaia20.htm

Sunday, October 11, 2015

It is UNCONSTITUTIONAL to NATIONALIZE any Religion or Favoring ANY Religion yet the United States calls it's self a Christian Nation. And discriminates, judges those who do not believe in their God.

"The phrase, "separation of church and state" is not written in either the First or the Fourteenth Amendment. Rather, these Amendments explicitly state that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the federal and state governments from nationalizing any religion, from creating a national church, and from favoring one religion over another."

Source and Full Article
http://www.christianpost.com/news/separation-of-church-and-state-is-not-in-the-u-s-constitution-122657/#0XWtqQleBm0dhlML.99

Friday, October 9, 2015

Congress is "thinking about" whether you can have a garden, deserve to know what is in your food, can have an abortion, can eat hers KNOWN to cure your cancer. Congress is thinking about what rights you have over your body, your kids, your home, your stewardship of Mother Earth. Congress is deciding how fast you should drive, what is safe, and what is not, and making laws to protect you from discernment, from thinking for yourself.

Do you really need to have others thinking for you? I certainly do not. Let those who study information and those who read it decide for themselves what is best for their body, their medicine. I have never felt FREE, as we have NOT in my lifetime been ALLOWED by our Government to use KNOWN cures to cure cancer or our loved ones. We do not have the freedom that so many think has been fought for, it is just not true. We don't need the Military Industrial Complex, we need homes, food, peace, love, laughter, clean air, clean soil, clean water, and JOY.

Congress decides the rules of your life, and the U.S says we are a Christian Nation. Jesus came here fighting to STOP taxes, stop oppression and stop governing bodies such as congress from abusing the people and to teach the people to know thyself, heal thyself, love your neighbor, and he was a whistleblower stand up against over taxation and abuse. Our governing body is in NO WAY christ like. I don't need a group of guy telling me something can or cannot cure cancer as a matter of law. I KNOW the FACTS First Hand.

So while Congress is thinking about what your allowed today in your alleged Freedom, Take Charge of your own Body and Mind. Be Christ Like. Heal Each other. Grow clean food, stand up for clean air and water, protect Mother Earth and listen within. Stay in total tune with YOU. Think for Your Self and Do the Right Thing. ~ Reverend Crystal Cox

Of Course Jesus and Mary were in a romantic relationship. People need to actually study what is out there instead of simply listening to what their pastor says or the patriarch's as to what the bible allegedly says.

"The publication on Nov. 12, 2014 of the book I co-wrote with Prof. Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Ancient Text that Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene, has caused a worldwide theological firestorm, including demonstrations in India. I was even the butt of one of Bill O'Reilly's attacks and have challenged him to an on-air debate. So far, he's demurred.
I think the reason for all this negativity is that the proof for the historical marriage between Jesus of Nazareth and the woman known as Mary the Magdalene has become overwhelming. Even before our findings, everything -- everything -- pointed to a marriage, and nothing -- nothing -- argued for Jesus' celibacy. The only thing that continues to argue for Jesus' celibacy is 2000 years of theological bullying. This may come as a shock to most people, but the fact is that none of the four Gospels say that Jesus was celibate. The Gospels call Jesus "Rabbi" (Matthew 26:49, Mark 10:51, John 20:16). Rabbis, then as now, are married. If Jesus wasn't married, someone would have noticed.
The greatest promoter of celibacy for Christians was Paul. On every other matter of Jewish law -- and Paul was a Jew called Saul at birth -- Paul was lax. He threw out Kosher laws, ignored Sabbath observance and prayed that the hands of ritual circumcisers shake so that they cut off their own penises when they perform circumcision (Galatians 5:12). Only when it came to sex Paul was more severe than Moses and Jesus put together. Why? The answer may lie in Paul's background.
As everyone knows, "Paul of Tarsus" came from Tarsus, an area of modern-day Turkey. What people don't know is that in the Tarsus of Paul's day they worshipped a god named Attis. Perhaps not coincidentally, Attis was a dying and resurrecting god. He was called "the Good Shepard", and his earliest depictions show him with a sheep across his shoulders. All these images were later incorporated into the iconography of Paul's version of Christianity. Put simply, Paul's Jesus looks a lot like Attis.
Attis had a great love in his life, Cybele. On their wedding night, Attis decided to make the supreme sacrifice and offer his testicles on the altar of his love. He surprised his virgin bride by castrating himself. This idea was a big hit in the Tarsus of Paul's day. Attis' priests, the Galli, would imitate their god by going into a frenzy, emasculating themselves and offering their testicles as holy sacrifices. Not surprisingly, this once-popular religion died out. For his part, Paul didn't promote literal castration -- although some early Pauline Christians, e.g. Church Father Origen, did castrate themselves. In the spirit of Attis, Paul advocated abstinence and celibacy, even in marriage (e.g. "It is good for a man not to touch a woman," 1 Corinthians 7:1). Had Jesus been celibate, Paul would certainly have invoked him as an example when arguing for celibacy. But he doesn't. Never once does Paul argue that Christians should be celibate, because Jesus was celibate. Not once!
If one looks at the Gospels without Attis-colored Pauline glasses, there are many, many hints that Jesus was married. Specifically, after the Crucifixion, the Gospels agree that it was Mary the Magdalene who went early Sunday morning to wash and anoint Jesus' crucified body (Mark 16:1). People have the quaint idea that ancient Jews in Jerusalem went around "anointing" each other. They didn't. What the Gospels are telling us is that Mary the Magdalene went to Jesus' tomb to prepare his body for burial. That's the Gospels, not me. Then and now, no woman would touch the naked body of a dead Rabbi, unless she was family. Jesus was whipped, beat and crucified. No woman would wash the blood and sweat off his private parts unless she was his wife.
Besides the canonical Gospels, there are the so-called "Gnostic" Gospels. The Gnostics -- or "wisdom seekers" -- were an early branch of Christianity, whose origins we don't know. What we do know is that they represent the losers in the Christian orthodoxy game. After the fourth century, the Church burnt Gnostic holy books and the people who believed in them. As a result, until recently, we had almost no Gnostic Gospels to refer to.
In 1947, in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, the Gnostics got their revenge. At that time, several of their Gospels were found hidden in jars. They all tell the same story -- Jesus was married. More than this, for his Gnostic followers, Jesus' marriage and sexual activity was more important than his death and resurrection. Simply put, they were more interested in his passion in bed than in his "Passion" on the cross.
What does archaeology have to say about a married Jesus?
In 1980, in Talpiot, just outside of Jerusalem, archaeologists discovered a 2000-year-old burial tomb. In the tomb there were ten ossuaries i.e., limestone coffins. Six of them were inscribed. One of them had the Hebrew/Aramaic name "Jesus son of Joseph" scratched on its side, another "Maria," yet another -- "Yose" -- a nickname referred to in the Gospels as belonging to one of Jesus' brothers (Mark 6:3, Matthew 13:55). A fourth ossuary was inscribed with the name "Matthew" and a fifth -- the only one in Greek -- with the name "Mariamene," a Greek version of "Mary" associated in all of Greek literature with one woman only -- Mary the Magdalene. Even more disturbing for Pauline Christians, a sixth inscribed ossuary -- apparently of a child -- had the name "Judah, son of Jesus" carved on it.
So what happened with this paradigm-shifting discovery? Nothing! Between 1980 and 1996 no archaeologists even reported the find. It took my 2007 documentary, The Last Tomb of Jesusand my co-authored book, The Jesus Family Tomb to propel the find onto the headlines. And what was the world's reaction? Again, nothing. In the spirit of The Life of Brian, according to the scholarly consensus, the tomb must have belonged to another Jesus and two other Marys. After all, if you believe that Jesus is an Attis-type god, he can't have a coffin, certainly not a wife and not a child that could've resulted from their sexual union."
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