In memory of Terri Schiavo

I found out about the details of Terri’s case through an editorial of Signs of the Times. I admit that checking the news, I always skipped her case because I thought it was distracting or perhaps I thought that this type of thing happens in our world every day. But after seeing Terri’s smile and her shining eyes in the video, I understood that there was more life in her that in the people who put an end to her life.
The message is clear; America is a place where psychopaths have their way.

Where is the truth?

If you heard the Truth, would you believe it?

White Rose Resistance

Some people had discussed the similarities between Nazi Germany and America today as if Nazi Germany was a sort of “trial run”. For some people it may sound like an extremist declaration to say, but not for those who have being paying attention. Let us take for instance the case of the White Rose Resistance, a group in Nazi Germany that distributed leaflets as a passive resistance to encourage the fall of the "government". They were normal young people; the majority of them were medical students.

Germany reechoed, in the brown-shirted Thirties, with buzzwords that are regaining currency today. The Nazis talked endlessly of “loyalty” and of “defending the Fatherland against terror.” To the Scholls, however, these concepts had very different meanings. To them, terrorism was the government’s own thought police, and loyalty meant obeying the dictates of the heart. As their father had reminded them for as long as they could remember, you cannot be true to anything unless you are true, first of all, to yourself: “What I want most of all for you is to live in uprightness and freedom of spirit, no matter how difficult that proves to be.” The White Rose, Its Legacy and Challenge

And they were beheaded, a guillotine blade hissed down their necks for the crime of distributing thousands of anti-Hitler leaflets in cities throughout the country instead of sitting back and doing nothing to combat the Third Reich. Some food for thought, considering Bush’s “holy war” against terrorism and how the US of A is becoming a police state in the name of Home Land Security. I wonder if this could happen in our not to distant future? After all, what we do now determines what kind of future we experience, individually and collectively. We know from this example what happened when people in Nazi Germany were easily duped, sat back and did nothing in front of the crimes of the Third Reich. It happened that later, beheadings like these ones became "normal". Right now the same atrocities are unfolding in front of our eyes and what are we doing? Wise as serpents and gentle as doves, lets not loose our heads.

Moods

I used to have a colleague who everybody loved and admired. He was the type of man who was always working for everybody, studying, researching, helping someone else, etc… he was the best of his kind. Any now and then he would sit down to smoke a cigar and share his learning experiences with us, newbies. Hmmm, that sweet smell, I really enjoyed those aromatic conversations so much. Anyway, it took him 7 years with the help of a major shock to make him realize that he was being manipulated at his best and that nobody had his best interests at heart. I don’t know if he came to manage the shock properly, the thing is that he left without saying goodbye, leaving all his things behind. We phoned and e-mailed him during the first months, but it was always blocked because he didn’t check his messages. Later I learned that he was okay, in a place were he was appreciated. Or so we would like to think. He used to leave his locker open to make all his books accessible to everybody. So, today I opened his locker to realize that everything was in its place, even his cigars which I obviously took. These cigars are really a delightful smoking, here they are: Moods, at www.dannemann.com. I don’t know how much they cost, but I think that from now on I’ll make the “sacrifice” to buy them and smoke them occasionally... thanks to my good friend. He will be happy to know that I learned a lot from his experience. After all, all there is is lessons.

Eostre

The Moon will be Full tonight. It seems that this particular Full Moon is linked to an ancient fertility goddess called Eostre. Eostre is generally said to be an Anglo-Saxon goddess. She is associated with various aspects related to the renewal of life: spring, fertility and the hare (for its quick and numerous reproduction). So, traditionally she is always accompanied by a hare and today we have Easter eggs and bunnies.

Rennes-le-chateau

I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail of Lincoln, Leigh, Baigent over 10 years ago. After reading it I told myself... so, basically there are a bunch of special aristocrats from the descending line of Jesus and his wife and they are taking care of the world. Hmmm, do we need to get worried then? 10 years later and thanks to a reminder I made some diggings of my own, because I really got worried you know... I found something that finally had some logic in all that nonsense surrounding the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau:

In the Mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau, we have mythicization on a grand scale. Many of the "little myths" were already in place, just waiting for someone to come along and weave them all together into a grand myth, an archetype, a "Holy Grail" of a story with something for everyone. And, Henry Lincoln and pals, as well as those who have followed with their own theories and "proofs" have obliged. What Gerard de Sede did on a national scale, Lincoln et al did on a global scale, and Rennes-le-Chateau is now practically a household word - a modern myth of epic proportions.

As Jacques Vallee said about the UFO phenomena, which applies also to “religious” phenomena:

Because many observations of UFO phenomena appear self-consistent and at the same time irreconcilable with scientific knowledge, a logical vacuum has been created that human imagination tries to fill with its own fantasies. Such situations have been frequently observed in the past, and they have given us both the highest and the basest forms of religious, poetic, and political activity.

The true Identity of Fulcanelli and the Da Vinci Code

The following quote is from The True Identity of Fulcanelli and The Da Vinci Code by Laura Knight-Jadczyk

[...] In terms of the myths and stories of the search for the Holy Grail, or, in our modern metaphor - the escape from the Matrix - most of the figures appearing in the Greek constellations were said to have been placed there by one of the gods to honor and perpetuate their memory. The constellation figures of Cepheus and Cassiopeia are unusual in that they were not granted their positions as an honor, but are there to complete the story of Perseus, Andromeda and Cetus. This is a group of five constellations that is unusual in that it is the only classical myth to be so fully depicted.
Can it be that this is a clue that this myth is a sort of “message in a bottle” to mankind? [...]

This article is from the book "The Secret History of The world”. The specialist on the "Grail" and of Alchemy, Patrick Rivière, writes in the Introduction:

[...] According to Laura Knight-Jadczyk, the mysteries of the Holy Grail and the
Ark of the Temple refer to a particular, very advanced “technology” – with
the aim, for example, of teleportation and changing between space-time
dimensions – a secret and sacred science of which only a few great
“Initiates” have remained custodians. Christ Jesus was the surest guarantor
of this precious legacy, and, although it might displease Dan Brown (author
of The DaVinci Code), the genealogical lineage of the “Sangréal” (the “Sang
Royal” or “Holy Blood”), is not at all as he believes it to be!

An awesome reading indeed!

books

Feminism

I was making a copy of my personal documents when a colleague came to me and asked permission to have a look at my passport picture. In a sincere tone of voice he replied: “You were so beautiful, what happened to you?” I laughed and had a look at the picture and suddenly did some recapitulation of my last years. It was true, at the time of that picture I was really vain and I really took care about my physical appearance. But after 5 years of living and struggling in a male environment I became a different person. It all started with a “mild” depression and I decided that I was not going to wear make-up. Then the depression ended but I realized that not wearing make-up saved me a lot of money and time. Then I noticed that I had problems with my sight and now I wear eyeglasses. My mother insisted in doing some contact lenses but I really liked the idea of the eyeglasses, I thought that maybe in that way they were going to respect me more. And last Christmas my mother bought me a lot of clothes, but I discarded half of it because it was just not appropriate. My mother was so disappointed, she thinks that I look like a nun and maybe she is right! Talking about nuns, I read and interesting article from a nun, who writes something that I think I should meditate:

I don't remember now what I expected a woman's group in the West of Ireland to be doing to celebrate International Woman's Day but what I found when I got there was definitely not it, however much I should have realized it. This group was not celebrating its achievements or its liberation or the by-gone days of the woman's movement. On the contrary.
Instead, this day was devoted to an explanation of the need for Mental Health Services for women to enable them to cope with the depression that comes from overload and isolation and powerlessness. They talked about depression and its indicators, about home-based services for country people, about the inadequacy of their own program.
They passed out materials on depression and stress and tension and violence against women. "Violence Against Women Is A Global Human Rights Crisis" the Amnesty Ireland brochure blared. "The major human rights scandal of our times," it said. The details were chilling:
Violence in the family, the brochure read, is the reason for more death and ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents for European women between 16 and 44 years of age.
In Russia, nearly 40 women die each day at the hands of their partners. Yet, the country still has no law addressing violence in the family.
In Ireland, a study conducted by the Rotunda Maternity Hospital found that in a sample of 400 pregnant women, 12.5 percent had experienced abuse while they were pregnant.
In the United Kingdom, emergency services receive an average of one call per minute -- repeat: one-call-per-minute -- about violence in the family.
"It is the violence most often ignored and most often tolerated," Amnesty declared.
It was a somber, serious group in front of me.
Then, at the end of the day, facing a group of strong, tight-lipped, middle-aged country women who had been working the land in this area all their lives, a woman got up and read to this rapt, uninitiated audience, Jenny Joseph's poem "Warning," which begins, "When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple." Ripples of understanding went through the crowd that brought all the meaning of all the day home. Here were sturdy women who had never been able to do anything but endure: not decide, not determine, not dispose of their lives. But inside them all, there was a warning waiting to be heard.
The poem's last line, especially -- after the listing of all the things forbidden to "nice ladies" that the speaker intends to forego when she gets old enough to ignore all the social rules -- seemed to ring true. "But maybe I ought to practice a little now, so people who know me are not too shocked and surprised, when suddenly, I grow old and start to wear purple."
I can still hear the applause trailing me back up the mountain.
Here in the West of Ireland, the women do not think feminism is over. They may well be thinking, it seems, that it has hardly begun.
I came back to the little stone cottage on the side of a mountain in Kerry, to the Sunday papers and a headline that read "Wife's Lib makes Indian divorce soar." This article detailed the changing marriage patterns in India where most women still do not eat before first serving their husbands and still live with their in-laws. But says Indian writer Shobhaa Dé, author of Spouse: The Truth About Marriage, in a country where 95 percent of all marriages are still arranged, "[men] have to realize that women no longer need marriage as a security blanket or as a meal ticket. Women can pay their own way, pay their own bills. What they want now from marriage is respect and equality."
From where I stand, it's clear: Feminism isn't over at all and you and I, for the sake of all the women of the world, have no right to be part of what ignores the moral imperative of it. So, I'm late for International Woman's Day, true. But here, still here. As usual.
By Joan Chittister, OSB

Dowsing in Midlothian

Searching my archives for some stuff that I saved a couple of years ago, I found the word document “Dowsing in Midlothian”… I almost forgot, in fact I went with my sister to Edinburgh 2 years ago and per chance we went on a “Celtic trail” where we met a nice couple from England. They taught us how to dowse and I must say it was a wonderful experience. I promised myself to give it another try but never actually did until 3 weeks ago. I was searching for a gold coin store and instead I found a place with pendulums on sale, I couldn’t resist and I bought one pendulum. I have Lethbridge’s “The Power of the Pendulum” so I decided to try the first experiment described on the book and to my surprise it worked! Oh well, I hope to have some chance to play with my new toy. I recall that in Edinburgh we used some sort of rods, but I guess it is all about preference. Now, the word document I found with the title “Dowsing in Midlothian” was actually the guest book entry that our friends from England wrote:

We had stopped off in Edinburgh, on our way home. The dowsing was over for this holiday. This was just a city-break to round it off.

But by the end of day 1, we had had enough of the tourist legions, even though we were part of them. When Ros noticed a leaflet saying Celtic Trails - Personalised Journeys to Sacred sites in Midlothian - that looked so much more interesting.

Our personalised journey was indeed made to measure. A seven-seater bus and an itinerary of Rosslyn Chapel and anything else we could fit in by 3.30. The rest of the party consisted of two professional women, sisters, from Costa Rica. I'm not sure what their itinerary was, but I doubt if it was this.

Our first stop (to avoid a traffic jam) was at The Balm Well at Liberton, oddly situated in the car park of a hotel. A magnificently understated dowsing site at the junction of two significant Ley lines. Earth energy and, naturally, water lines were also present. This was a most important location.

Next - the main course. I'd heard of Rosslyn Chapel […] and expected something impressive. Well, it was - but not quite as I had imagined.

Arriving at Rosslyn, instead of some gothic glory, we were faced with a badly eroded sandstone building, covered by an enormous metal roof. It looked more like an abandoned Buddhist Wat in the rainforest than a significant parish church of the Church of Scotland.

But once inside, everything changed. Here is a truly mystical building, full of hidden layers and alternative interpretations. Nothing is quite what it seems. On one level it is an extraordinary mish-mash of pagan myths and legends, intertwined with biblical stories, both traditional and apocryphal - on another, it is an architect's fantasy.

The official guide helpfully distracted all of the other visitors, and while she was telling them the official history, I was able to dowse around the energy lines, leys and spirals - some of which were very active and very large. One of the most impressive spirals is situated in the crypt, in an ante-room. The official guide described this room as a tool shed, which brought a smile to our party. […]

The other location on our schedule was the village of Temple, named (like our own Temple on Bodmin Moor) after its connection with the Knights Templar. Our guide took us first to an unmarked and abandoned Norman arch in the corner of a field full of nettles. At this point, the unusual morphed into the surreal for our Costa Rican friends. To make them feel more part of the action, they were equipped with coat-hanger dowsing rods and we all ploughed through the long grass to the arch. After a few minutes dowsing for water and energy - with everyone having some success - we decided to move on. I was asked to find a route back to the bus, and without giving it too much thought, I dowsed for the quickest route back. Needless to say, this took us through some thigh-high vegetation and delivered us to a barbed wire fence surrounding a children's playground. I felt an intangible smirk. The fence, however, was conveniently holed at this point and we struggled through it without further mishap. We then crossed the playground, still waving our rods, and made it to the bus. An elderly lady and her grandson stared open-mouthed at the activity of this strange entourage - as if the Loch Ness Monster had made a rare guest appearance in her village. I wasn't looking at the Costa Ricans. But we did make it safely!

The ruined Templar church in Temple is something a bit special. It is situated in a secluded glade, and has been abandoned for centuries, it is as alive as the day it was built. There were two ley lines present and numerous serpentine energy lines. On the bank, behind what would have once been the altar, stands an innocuous-looking gravestone. The only legible mark on it is a St Andrew's cross and it has at some stage been turned on its side. Our guide, Jacqui, was keen to know more about this stone, and asked me to dowse what I could of its purpose. It stands at the crossing of two energy lines and is therefore the focal point of a spiral, but more significantly, it is also on the track of a ley that dog-legs strangely as it leaves the church. It appeared to have first been erected in the 300's, which was news to me, as I didn't think people were erecting stones like this between the Neolithic and middle ages (the Romans never got this far). Was the stone part of an L-shift? - yes. Was the stone erected by the Culdees? - yes. The answers to these last two questions were even more surprising as I had never heard of either an L-shift or a Culdee!

At this point, I realised I was getting dowsed-out, and anyway it was time to whisk our Costa Rican colleagues back to their hotel, to catch their plane.

I hadn't realised what rich dowsing territory Midlothian contains - and it was a very pleasant surprise indeed.

Healing myself...

I went to the dentist today to have my root therapy finished. The dentist asked “Ha fatto giustizia il dente?” which means: “Did the tooth made justice?” or something like that… I guess it didn’t because what he did to me was very painful and now I have to get back to him in one month. My tooth needs to make justice, hmmm... I wonder if there is another meaning to my tooth problem.

Can smoking be good for you?

I restarted smoking after a close friend of mine, who was in med school at that time learned that nicotine was very helpful in some disorders and that it actually had benefits in some aspects. Besides that, she told me that some of her patients with lung and heart diseases had never smoked before and their diseases were as bad as or even worser of those who actually smoked. Why don't we read this kind of information out there? Anyway, that was some years ago. But recently I finally found an article with some interesting information, "Aliens Don't Like to Eat People That Smoke!." Hey, what a funny title... The article says:

[...] Now, nicotine is a most interesting drug. Nicotine mimics one of the body's most significant neurotransmitter, acetylcholine. This is the neurotransmitter most often associated with cognition in the cerebral cortex. Acetylcholine is the primary carrier of thought and memory in the brain. It is essential to have appropriate levels of acetylcholine to have new memories or recall old memories. [...]

With all the non-smoking laws and propaganda, I can't help but to realize that after all, "they" want to keep us stupid...

The Last Supper

I went today to the Covent Santa Maria delle Grazie, to have a close look to Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece “The Last Supper”. The only way to see it is through a reservation made at least with one week of anticipation, as there are usually a lot of people. Once inside you’ve got only 15 minutes to see the painting and of course, no pictures allowed. The ticket costs 8 euros (reservation included) and is really worth it. It’s really amazing and huge…15 x 29 ft. Another amazing thing is that the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory) in Milan was seriously damaged during second world war. On august 1943 the Refectory was bombed, but the wall with Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper was actually “saved” from this bombing. How lucky! Now I can say that I saw the Da Vinci Code…