Trump officially recognizes Jerusalem as Israel capitol (what if he is right)

Yesterday, President Donald J. Trump fulfilled one of his campaign promises, and officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Furthermore, the US embassy to Israel will be moved to Jerusalem. He claims that this step will lead to peace between Israel and Palestine. And his hardcore Christian and Jewish supporters are applauding this decision.

Meanwhile, Palestine, the United Nations, our European allies, and most of the rest of the world is saying that Trump has made the problem in Israel-Palestine harder to solve. As evidence, one just has to look at the spike of violence in Israel today.

Now, for the one person who just arrived on this planet, the problem with Israel-Palestine starts a couple of thousand years ago when Israel got conquered; and the Jews proved to be a violent menace when allowed to remain in sufficient numbers in the region, so they got kicked out. Since then, the Jews have been kicked out of many countries because it is easy to make a villain out of them (basically, their religious law is set up in a way where it is hard for them to go mainstream anywhere; therefore, they are always a separate group that can be scapegoated when someone wants to do something politically evil).

The problem got interesting during World War I (yes, the first one) where some politicians supported the establishment in Palestine of a homeland for the Jews. The idea lingered over the country during the period of the British Mandate. And came to a boil with the horrors of World War II which showed the Jewish people that they really need a homeland.

Looking at the historical record, I honestly think that the British politicians were playing both sides (some of them told the Palestinians that they had no worries), having apparently no actual intention of doing what they promised the Jews.

But the horrors of WWII convinced the United Nations, in 1947, to create a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. The British withdrawn and...

...all hell broke loose as the entire Arab world tried to prevent it from happening. Israel managed to win. And since then, Israel has suffered periodic violence as various Muslim warlords try to destroy them.

As someone who dabbles in alternate history stories, I do wonder what would have happened if the Arabic world would have not responded with violence. Would the Jews seen a need to expand using war? Or would they have remained peaceful, with the Middle East being slightly less violent today.

(Even with a peaceful Israel, I think that the Middle East would be a mess...just like every other historical period that mixes religious zeal with the government. And anyone who thinks the United States with a zealous national religion would be different is a loony.)

So we had a century of thought that says a Two State Solution is the way to go, and seventy years of violence as the Palestinians and their Arab/Muslim allies has tried to drive the Jews out of Israel because Palestinians and their neighbors really don't want a Two State Solution. In fact, there are a lot of radical Muslims who think that this whole mess should have been dealt with by a German victory in WWII. But no, the allies won...

There are few ways to read President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel.

Trump could just be doing what his most zealous followers want because he wants to be re-elected. And/or making a major donor and his son-in-law happy. And/or emphasizing how much his loyal followers believe Islam is an enemy and that all Muslims are bad. And/or he could honestly think that this move will help the peace process. And/or he could be trying to unleash the Four Horsemen.

Or he could be secretly admitting what no Western politician wants to admit--the Two State Solution is not working, and probably never will work.

Yes, yes, I know--feel free to call me names in the comment section.

Seriously, has history ever seen a successful Two State Solution?

Let's see...

Britain, Ireland, and Scotland...uh, no.

Austria-Hungary...uh, attempting to give everyone a fair voice, including allowing several national languages to be spoken, severely weaken their military might, so that would be a no.

East and West Germany...uh, that worked out so well economically, didn't it? (By the way, German Neo-Nazis all come from East Germany because they were not told in school that Germany had committed a crime against humanity during WWII.)

North and South United States before the Civil War--so much a Two State Solution--well we all know how that one worked out. (By the way, the reason there are proud Confederates is because they are taught that the Civil War was a just war, about state rights, and not about slavery. It is like the declarations of succession never mentioned slavery as the reason to go to war--oh, wait, the documents say exactly that.)

Current Republican-Democrat Two Party Please Burn All the Traitors Stand-Off...we will have to just wait and see. (And the reason, members of one political party think that the members of the other political party is just a bunch of traitors is--drum roll please--because they are taught by the leaders of their own party that the other party are nothing more than traitors.)

Given the historical evidence that a Two State Solution will not work, the only way I see a successful Israel-Palestine dual state working is if tentacled aliens from outer space atomic laserized all the other capital cities and economic centers off the face of the Earth.

So let me now say something nice about President Donald J. Trump.

He might be the only politician in the entire world that is willing to admit that the Two State Solution is not going to work. Or maybe not--I am still waiting for the midnight rage tweet to tell me why he really did this. But if he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capitol because he believes that it is time to consider an One State Solution, then I admire his courage to break ranks with the traditional thinking on this issue.

And yes, I know--I am evil bastard for looking at the historical examples and not being able to find one that actually work. As always, there is the glorious comment section where you can tell me that I am an evil bastard who has it completely wrong.

(Do I support a Two State Solution?...yes...for humanitarian reasons...but my knowledge of history tells me that it will probably never work without something major happening that makes both Israel and Palestine band together in the name of enlightened self-preservation--in other words, aliens from outer space. Again, there is the comment section to call me names in.)

The esoteric heart of the world according to many authorities.

The Opposition looks at witches binding Trump and the brave Christians who oppose them

October 31st's episode of The Opposition with Jordan Klepper (Comedy Central) included a segment where Citizen Journalist Laura Grey went to Baltimore and interviewed Michael Hughes (and some other witches binding Trump), and then talked to David Kubal, president of Intercessors for America, a Christian group that is using prayer to protect Trump from the evil witches.

You can watch the clip here on SplitSider.

The moment I groaned the most was when David Kubal tried to blame the turnout and violence in Charlotteville on witches, "How did people know to go there?" Because in Christian minds, all bad things in the world is the fault of witches (never mind that the internet exists). I guess Kubal also thinks that the Alt-Right are nice people, and not the f***ing Nazis I think they are.

Of course, the silliest moment was when Kubal defined prayer, “A prayer is asking the Lord to change things that I want to see happen”; and then defined a witch spell, “Well, a spell is certain words that are spoken with the expectation that supernatural forces will accomplish something that you want to accomplish.” I guess that the only reason witches are evil is that they don't believe in the Christian god (Jesus) and that President Donald J. Trump is going to bring about the arrival of the Messiah (though it should be noted that I have heard some Christians say that Trump is the Messiah).

An useful chart to determine if something is good prayer or evil black magic.

Prophets Visit (a new art series)

My latest art project is photographs of the Prophets and Sages and Gods of various religions visiting famous places around the world...because it is art, dammit! And maybe, just maybe a little bit of mystic mumbo-jumbo social / religious / political commentary about how the founders and deities of various religions are just tourists and really fun to hang out with...because I am insane, dammit! And before you scream Sacrilege! and Heresy! and Blasphemy!--remember that I grew up in the arms of Wicca, and other pot smoking hippy religious philosophies...because my parents allowed me to hang out with my aunt, dammit!

If you want to follow the art series, stalk me on DeviantArt...because I am a very humorous artist, dammit!

And remember for just a dollar a month, you can encourage my insanity on Patreon...because I have bills to pay, dammit!

Or you could just buy random stories and rants from me on Amazon...because I have a soapbox and I am not afraid to use it, dammit!

Three Prophets visit the Denver Broncos at Mile Hi.

In this installment, three Prophets (Moses, Muhammad, and Jesus) visit the Mile High city and decide to take in a football game at Sports Authority Field at Mile Hi. Knowing that the Denver Broncos are better than the Oakland Raiders, they dress accordingly. Go Broncos!

Should Merriam Webster Online Dictionary change their definition of Heathen?

Today in one of the many Facebook groups that I am in, someone shared a link to a petition demanding that Merriam Webster Online Dictionary change their definition of Heathen.

The petition demanding Webster change the definition of the word Heathen. 

So how bad is Webster's definition of Heathen?

First part of the Webster's definition. 

The first part is ok (I guess), and the second part is traditional. Many writers insisted that Heathens were uncivilized.

I just happen to know a worse definition of Heathen (from the 1982 edition of the Random House College Dictionary): "an unenlightened or barbaric idolater."

Oh look, the defintion of Heathen goes back to the 12th century. 

These "insulting" definitions have been in play for a long time. At one point, the term Heathen also applied to the Muslims. Today, it is more or less, everyone who is not a Jew, Christian, or Muslim. I guess that someone decided that the Muslims are civilized.

Definition by rejection of the Bible.

One of the complaints of the petition is that the definition is based on "rejection of the God of the Bible," a god that Jews, Christians, and Muslims share...uncomfortably, but it is the same baseline god if you follow the lines of transmission and origins of these three religions. They argue that Christianity (and the rejection of) should not be in the definition....which ignores why dictionaries get used in the first place--when using a dictionary, you want them to tell you the most likely ways that a word is being used (not some idealized seldom encountered in real life definition).

But look, it is a Christian definition of Heathen.

The synoyms include Pagan which is also defined by its rejection of the god of the Old Testament, New Testament, and Quran.

The definition of Heathen for kids. 

Yes kids, Heathens are uncivilized; Christian writers have been saying that for centuries. And writers do use the term to describe people who have no civilizations or wildly different ones.

Webster would like to know why you are looking up the word Heathen.

Can we at least agree that Webster asking why you are interested in the word Heathen is at least an attempt by them to stay current with its modern usage?

The two things that are to be included in the new definition of Heathen.

Gythja Dearbhla actually says in the petition that not only does they want the reference to the Bible removed, along with the insulting "uncivilized" definition, but they also want the definition to be "a convert of the Aesir and Vanir [ancient gods of the Norse religion]" and "a Norse polytheist."

(By the way, one of my favorite definitions of Cat is actually a definition by what it is not: Cat--not a dog.)

Here is your laugh out loud moment of the day. 

The best comment (for its humor value) was someone saying that "I agree whole heartedly with this action. I do believe the wording needs the approval of a heathen majority."

I presume that Scott Mattis means ONLY Norse pagans are to be consulted.

And this is where I have to ask, "Can you even get a dozen Heathens to agree what type of light bulbs to buy?" And what about all the non-Norse Heathens? Why don't they also get a vote?

As a writer and a scholar, let me be the one to break the bad news to you. Dictionaries reflect how writers actually use words, not how you think the words should be defined by your own particular religion. If religions were allowed to pick the definitions of words, we would get stuck with the following definition of Heathen (buckle in):

Heathen: an ignorant uncivilized person who absolutely is going to Hell for refusing to accept the one true God of the Bible.

And why would we be stuck with that definition? Simply because there are far more Christians than pagans and heathens in English speaking counties, both in the present and in the past. The definitions that Webster and Random House are using are not nearly as bad as the ones that we would get if a committee got to define the word to their satisfaction.

So how do we get the definition changed? Well, a petition is useless. What changes the definition of the word are writers using it in a different manner than it was previously used. So instead of signing a petition, go to Webster Online Dictionary and tell them about instances that Heathen (and for that matter Pagan) are being used in a modern sense of "someone civilized who believes in gods other than the Jewish Christian Muslim god." If enough people do this, they will add a new section to the definition reflecting its new use. Why? Because that is how dictionaries actually define words--by how people are actually using them.

(Please note that the current definitions will remain simply because there is a few centuries of usage that says that all heathens need to be saved by the civilizing force of the one true God. Also note that I am a Heathen and Pagan...not that it will stop you from calling me bad names in the comment section.)

I am a pagan and not a horse

Fuck you---I am Cat---I will play with anyone I want to.

Some days, you just have to say that "A white horse is not a horse."

And this is proving to be one of those months...I have yet to see a day on the blogosphere where it does not apply.

For those of you who are tuning in late, there is an campaign going on another blog that is based on the bear trap of "If you agree with anything that I say, then you have to agree that my entire world view is true." It is one of the reasons that I dislike the blogger in question; they use this bear trap all the time.

(Over the years, my dislike of this person has grown based purely on their public actions. It is probably just a personal problem.)

It must be nice to live in a black and white universe where there are only heroes and villians, the good guys and the crooks. It must be even nicer to be able to tell the difference between the two camps. Myself, I live in a shaded universe without no clear cut definitions of right and wrong, no clear cut difference between perfect and imperfect.

The most amusing part is that the line between good and evil they seem to be using is whether you are pagan or not. If you belong to a society that was Christian-only any time in its entire history, then you are evil. Gee, one should burn their Rosicrucian union card, shouldn't they?

This is coming from a convert to paganism (sometime after 1995). I think that they might be in their anti-Christian phase. I expect them to now run around cleaning up all evidence that they are a convert to paganism---they periodically scrub their past history to fit their current set of arguments. For instance, they would rather scrub the fact that they were members of certain groups rather than say, "Gee, that was a really bad decision in hindsight."

Now, I have been a life-long pagan. In fact, I have been a life-long Wiccan.

Maybe I should give some context here. My father was a Catholic, and my mom was something else (one of those Christian groups that really frowns on the Catholic Church). Based on the research I have done, my family on my father's side at some point converted to the Catholic Church. It seems that side of the family might have originally been Jewish.

Given the difference in opinion about religion between my parents, it was decided that I would be raised without a religion. So the only exposure to Christianity I recieved during childhood was a few children story books focused mainly on the Old Testament (or maybe it is because I only read the Old Testament stories).

But I was exposed to a religion as a kid---my dear aunt was a Wiccan of the Gardnerian stripe. It didn't help that my mom believed in reincarnation and astrology. So when I say that I have been a life-long Wiccan, I am serious.

I came out of the broom closet in 1978 when I was thirteen. The timing of this decision was a very bad idea in hindsight. As a result of coming of the broom closet, a strong attempt was made to "save my soul."

It was the attempt to save my soul and the attitudes of certain Christians that caused me to go through a rather long period where I was anti-Christian. Either that or I spent an extended time period being a teenager.

My anti-Christian period is matter of public record. If one is curious about how bad my anti-Christian bias got, feel free to read the last article contained in Four Cornerstones (available for free on Smashwords).

I was still in my ant-Christian phase when I first encountered Golden Dawn. And I was still allowed into the Order. I somehow convinced them, despite my charming personality, to invite me into Inner Order. Of course, in all fairness, this was a branch of the tradition that gave an earlier AO claimed-descent group the bird.

So I am one of those Golden Dawn members that was told "If you are not a Christian, you have to be willing to study Christian symbolism." And I said Ok.

Later on, I was briefly a member of the Thelemic Golden Dawn, a fact that I have not hidden either. And this was despite the fact that I do not completely believe in the Book of the Law. This may or may not make me a Thelemic. (I don't consider myself a Thelemic, but there are a couple of Thelemics who do---it is one of the reasons my lodge does not have an anti-Thelema rule in Outer Order. Inner Order does, but it is a "You have to make a choice between Orders rule"---it would apply equally to someone who had a membership in the HOGD/AO or the MOAA as it does to the AA and OTO.)

Of course, I am hoping that this is just an anti-Christian phase that I am seeing. I fear that it is just another attempt to get the rest of us to acknowledge that the person in question is the greatest Golden Dawn magician and leader of all time. (Ok, I know that statement is wrong, but it is how I tend to read most of his tactics---it is the only end goal that makes sense of half of his statements.)

So I am in a position where I am reading his current line of arguments and thinking to myself:

"Gee, I was Golden Dawn before someone took out their trademark. And honestly, the SRIA has never said a single word to me about what I am currently doing. In fact, I am not even sure that the SRIA is aware of me...outside of one individual who likes funny cat pictures. And honestly, if the pagans are allowed to study their esoteric mysteries in private and restrict their membership to fellow and lady believers, shouldn't the Christians be allowed to study their own mysteries in private also? As for the threat of a group gaining full control over Golden Dawn, I am more worried that a dog lover may succeed."

Personally, I am more worried about certain politicians and their "Christians are being attacked" nonsense. That line of thought could make it unpleasant for all of us.

And now some content for the "A white horse is not a horse" comment. I am studying Chinese Philsophy and Religion at the moment. The Logician School (Ming-Chia or Ming-Pien) thought that there needed to be an one on one correspondence between words and reality. What the word "white" describes has nothing to do with horses; and the word "horse" is not describing a color---and if it sounds stupid, well, there is a reason why this school of Chinese philosophy disappeared after the Flowering of a Thousand Schools period.

I used it because it was fresh in my mind, and it is like saying that "A Golden Dawner in the SRIA is not a Golden Dawner." Of course, the fact that I believe this will be used as proof that I am not a member of a true Golden Dawn Order. And so it goes.

Remember Elvis loves you.

Shocking truth of the Shroud of Frater RC

[Thanks to Ananael for calling my attention to the latest research on the Shroud of Turin; you can go to his blog Augoeides to read his reaction to the research.]



Full length negatives of the Shroud of Turin.

The latest research on the subject of the Shroud of Turin reveals that the image could have been made by a flash of ultraviolet light. Of course, this leaves two problems for those who believe that the Shroud of Turin is the shroud that Jesus Christ was buried in: One, where did Jesus find a ultraviolent laser in his time period; and two, why does the carbon dating of the shroud place the Shroud's origin between 1260 and 1390?

Being the mad occultist I am, I think I have a solution; but the Christians are not going to like it. I don't think that the Shroud of Turin is actually the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. Instead, I propose it is the burial cloth of the founder of the Rosicrucian movement, the burial cloth of Frater RC himself.

My theory has the benefit of bringing the Shroud into a myth that uses temporal dates much closer to the carbon dating results. Plus my theory has the additional benefit of explaining how the lasering of the cloth occurred---quite simply, when Frater RC died and assumed his rightful place in the Rosicrucian hierarchy as a solar being, his corpse emitted a flash of ultraviolet light which imprinted his image onto the burial cloth.

Therefore, the Italian scientific community has proved evidence that not only was Frater RC a real person, they have also provided proof that ascension into the solar body is possible. Sounds like a win-win to me...unless you are a Christian that believes the myth that Jesus was buried in the Shroud of Turin.

Shroud of Turin before its 2002 restoration.

We are not warring against Christmas

As most of my regular readers know, I am not a Christian. I am a tree hugging Wiccan, who has one foot in the Norse camp and one foot in the Egyptian camp. I have studied some Christian and Jewish symbology through my membership in Golden Dawn, but I have no desire to change my religion. This background makes watching certain trends interesting---perhaps in the ancient Chinese curse sense.

One of the big trends at the moment is the idea that there is a war against Christianity and all its aspects in the United States. This includes Christmas. And supposely, the pagans are the ones waging it and are being led by President Obama.

It is that last part that you need to play attention to, for it is what the whole trend is really about.

Politicans in their infinite wisdom, having decided that Obama is the cause of all of society's ills, and they want the man out of office. And the best way to do this is to convince you that he and his evil minions are waging a war against the Christian religion. The reason that this is effective tactic is because the majority of the population of the United States is Christian (80 percent).

Religions in America.

Please note that my religion is not even large enourgh to show up on the piechart.

Therefore, if you are after the soul of the voter, the best way to do it is to claim the the evil twenty other percent of the population is guilty of trying to change the United States into Babylon. Of course, you must be kept ignorant of certain truths in order for the politicians, who have your best interest and not the big business in mind.

For instance, you must remain unaware that the United States was not meant to be a Christian country---the Founding Fathers were concerned about what happens when a state religion is implimented, and they remembered how the English King had treated them. Therefore, you are allowed to be any religion you want to be---just like I am.

You also must remain ignorant of the fact that Jesus' birthdate is not recorded in the Bible. The decision to make it December 25th was actually a Catholic decision; it was about converting the worshippers of Mithras, a Roman sun god, to Christianity. Christmas and its customs actually has nothing to do with Jesus.

You must remain ignorant of the fact that the pagans merely would like to be able to acknowledge their own holiday, a holiday that was stolen from them. It is not really a war---we merely want to wish you a happy holiday without having to claim Christ as our Savior.

So please forgive me when I wish you a Happy Holiday without acknowledging your god.

Dont care about the state of your soul

This is one of those full disclosure updates type of things.

Quite simply, I do not care about my reader's souls.

Proof? I have not been approving comments from Christians who believe that all magicians and witches should give up magic and return to the arms of Christ.

Sorry.

My personal belief is that Jesus was a magician, that he would have willingly sat down to have dinner with witches, and that he was not the messiah. Furthermore, I do not believe that he would have condemned me, or any other witch or magician to harsh punishments (including imprisonment, stoning, burning at the stake, and banishment to the worst locations in the afterlife).

(And no, I do not consider it necessary to be a Christian to be a member of the RC---go figure.)

And yes, I am well aware that makes me an evil person.

Talking about alchemy in Christian cant

On one of the forums I occasionally read, I ran across someone talking about the fact that the mysteries, Orders, and alchemy are warped by the fact that they have been poured though a Christian matrix. And I just rolled my eyes.

I have read comments by this person before. They have an ax to grind. Basically, if you do not completely abandon the material of the last couple of thousand of years and go directly back to ancient Egypt, then you are doing it wrong.

For them, Golden Dawn is a step backwards. I can only read so many of their posts before I start to mutter, "Why is this person posting on a Golden Dawn forum?"

But this is the type of person who in two hundred years are going to be complaining that the mysteries, Orders and alchemy ended up being filtered though a pagan/Wiccan matrix in our time period. It does not matter if we are warping the system or not---what matters is that we are not worshipping and working in the Golden Age mode that they believe was the height of perfection. They believe that at some point in time, the mysteries were perfect and everything done since that time is a corruption of the mysteries.

Where is a time machine when you need one? I would like to send people like this back to their Golden Age.

Now I will admit that they do have a point. The times of a magician does color how they describe things. So yes, the mysteries, Orders and alchemy have ended up being described in Christian terms. Give us a few years, and initiates will be talking about these things in terms of paganism and Wicca, and someone will be upset because of that.

And it will not matter one bit. At the core of these disciplines are certain constants and it does not matter how you clothe them. That is one of the reasons that they are called mysteries. The body of the mysteries does not matter (except to the individual tastes and background of the magician); the spirit remains the same.

If we believed...

Yesterday, there was a lot of ruckus over a YouTube video of Lon Milo DuQuette singing an anti-Xmas song. Honestly, I understand where he is coming from, just like I can see where a lot of the outrage is coming from.

I personally have mixed feelings towards Christians.

Earlier this year, I was told by my sister (more or less) that my religion, spiritual beliefs, and Order involvement was wrong and misguided (I believed the term delusional was used). I have also had Christian friends tell me that they believe that it should still be legal to burn witches (aka wiccans); note that they quickly ceased to be friends when they learned of my actual religion.

And I rolled my eyes at the Take Back Christmas crowd. Especially the Gap ad haters: first you complain because Gap does not say Merry Christmas, then you complain when they include Stolistice.

Now, I know some wonderful Christians. For most, Christianity is a life-affirming religion. If I wasn't such a tree huggers, spell casting, goddess worshipper, I might consider the religion---provided of course, that it could agree to be open-minded and tolerant. But too often, Christianity is used to...well, Lon said it better than I can. All it takes is a few bad apples to ruin an entire religion for everyone.

So if you are one of the open-minded Christians, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas. If you are a pagan or Wiccan, a happy solistice. (I am not familiar enourgh with the other religions to spell the names of their December holidays properly, but you know where I am headed already.) On the other hand, if you are a close-minded---get off my lawn!