View allAll Photos Tagged Discernment
In 1849, the Tallahassee population had grown to almost 1,800 men, women, and children. From this diverse population, four men and five women organized the Baptist Church of Tallahassee. Of these nine original members, one was to become governor and another state comptroller.
Throughout our 172 year history, many members have occupied positions of leadership in private business and industry as well as in the public sector, including governors, university presidents, college deans, professors, coaches, judges, legislators, commissioners, and mayors. The first church building was situated on the south side of College Avenue on a lot purchased for $500. With missionary pastors sent from the Home Mission Board, the membership grew until the Civil War began. There was no post-war record of ministry until 1880 when Rev. A.C. McCants was sent to lead the church.
In September 1894 the name of the church was changed to The First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, and from meager purses, the building was remodeled, refinished, and reoccupied on January 21, 1900. With a membership of 407, a new church structure was dedicated in November 1915 with the coming of Pastor-builder J. Dean Adcock. First Baptist Church continued to serve the needs of the Tallahassee community in the 1920s and 1930s. But the 1940s brought an influx of World War II personnel. When the Florida State College for Women became the co-educational Florida State University, students were filling every service and it was time to build again. Dr. Harold G. Sanders led us through an eight-year building program that ended with the completion of our second-century church in 1957.
In the subsequent years, First Baptist Church recognized the need for additional churches in Tallahassee and responded by establishing six mission churches. Additional structures were also added to our existing location under the guidance of Dr. Robert W. McMillian, including construction of a multi-purpose Christian Life Center in 1974 and administrative offices in 1987. Additional buildings were also purchased in 1998 for future expansion.
During the end of the twentieth century, we gave prayerful consideration to relocating our church. During that time of discernment, we waited on God for direction regarding our place of future ministry. We concluded a study in 2009 and came to the decision that our present location is where God wants us to be for as long as Jesus tarries. Today, we proudly state that we are here…for life, and we embrace that calling joyfully and hopefully.
No other community organization can substitute for us in testifying to the abundant life Jesus gives. We believe that God called us to pursue a phased renovation of our entire campus so that we might be able to offer first-century ministry in a twenty-first-century context that meets the spiritual needs of every generation and life stage. In August 2009, we adopted a set of recommendations for Phase I of our plan, to include roof repairs, renovations to the Fellowship Hall and Christian Life Center as well as the Children’s and Youth Ministry areas. In addition, our plan included a brand-new Welcome Center and Atrium that serve as a connecting point for all of our buildings. In August 2011, we completed all of the Phase I plans, and we began utilizing all of our new and renovated facilities.
As we look toward the future, we are excited about what God is doing in and through First Baptist. Jesus has promised to “build his church,” and as we continue to follow him, we look with anticipation toward his continued blessing upon us.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
search.leonpa.gov/Property/Details/2136251831705
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Matthew 6:30 "If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
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God admires life of simplicity and trusting Him only. Architectures and great buildings built and erected through time and thousands of years come and go, but that's through the concept of the big society, in fact fallen angel doctrine derivatives who wanted to be worshiped are gods packaged in many shapes and sizes.
Let me jump on my thoughts of churches that focus more on the aesthetics of buildings, and making it a community creche club accepting all and everyone without the transformation through grace of the cross are apostate churches multiplying these days.
Myself don't identify with any of those. As those type of churches are not ordained by Yahuah God himself. Apart from it's being lead by ministers chosen from the criteria in this world ministry, graduates from seminaries, colleges etc. D'you think these graduates are God chosen and have truly the anointing from Yahuah God to be preaching on the pulpits?
It's not the great number of people attending that make a church a great church. In fact the more it becomes a mega church, the more apostate it is. Run-away as much you can from it if anyone has the discernment.
You know an apostate church because it doesn't condemn any sin, it goes a blind eye to sin. It speaks always about love, love,love of God, yet omitting any mention that God Himself is also a judge. This type of churches are afraid to mention types of sin and avoid pointing sin as it's likely to trigger people leaving the church.
This type of churches wanted great attendance and membership for the MONEY. You'll know them by their fruits.
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Outlining a Theory of General Creativity . .
. . on a 'Pataphysical projectory
Entropy ≥ Memory ● Creativity ²
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Etude du jour:
L'allégorie de Camera & Obscura
(ou comment il n'y a de discernement qu'en renonçant conjointement, dialogiquement, à la quête d'une Absolue perception et d'une Universel connaissance.)
Il était une fois deux petites boîtes sombres, illuminées de certitudes ; deux petites têtes vides, pleines d'espoir ; dont l'âme sensible attendait impatiente que la lumière extérieure les pénétrât et fît naître en elles une image vraie de la Réalité Vraie.
Quand le moment fut venu, elles s'ouvrirent.
Camera, en quête d'Absolu voulait tout ressentir sans chercher à comprendre. Tout percevoir, absolument Tout ! Le moment venu, elle décida de se laisser submerger par la plus violente énergie possible, toute sa sensibilité offerte à la jouissance de tout engloutir intensément, sans aucun jugement, sans penser une seconde avec ces mots qui obscurcissent l'esprit plus qu'ils ne l'éclairent. Elle installa un film hypersensible qu'elle pousserait au développement malgré son gros grain. Elle ouvrit son diaphragme au maximum, longtemps, et s'abandonna à l'ivresse extatique d'absorber sans retenue tout le flot entropique de la Réalité Vraie qui s'engouffrait en elle.
Obscura, en quête d'Universel voulait tout comprendre sans se laisser émouvoir. Tout concevoir ! Absolument tout ! Le moment venu, elle décida de tout distinguer avec la plus grande profondeur de champ possible, toute son intelligence concentrée à tout discerner avec finesse, sans la moindre distorsion, sans céder à la tentation de croire à ces apparences qui éblouissent plus qu'elles n'éclairent. Elle installa un film à grain hyperfin qu'elle développerait rudement pour compenser sa faible sensibilité. Elle ouvrit dans son diaphragme un interstice minuscule, un infime instant, et concentra toute sa minutieuse lucidité à détecter le sens de la moindre particule de Réalité Vraie qui parviendrait à s'infiltrer en elle.
La morale de cette histoire ? Tous les photographes vous la dirons !
Camera obtint l'image la plus lumineuse qui soit, c'est à dire l'image la plus floue à la fois, d'un blanc aussi immaculé qu'uniforme.
Obscura obtint l'image la plus nette qui soit, c'est à dire l'image la plus sombre à la fois, d'un noir aussi immaculé qu'uniforme.
Laquelle eut tort ou raison ? Laissons cette dichotomie manichéenne à tous les donneurs de leçons stupides, à tous les castrateurs en théologie du mal et du bien, à tous les marchands de bonnets d'âne du saint marché des bons-points, à tous les coureurs de records à podiums collectionneurs d'échecs à médailles.
Observons plutôt comment la diajonction de leurs expériences respectives leur apporta finalement la réponse ultime à la question initiale : Quelle image peut-on discerner de la Réalité Vraie ? Ou autrement dit, avec la joie de pictosopher : Quelle est l'épaisseur des apparences ?
Désormais, lorsqu'elles choisissent une ouverture et un temps de pause susceptibles de former des images moins aveuglées, Camera et Obscura sentent se former en elles quelques soupçons de Réalité Vraie, des images aussi pauvres de Sensibilité Absolue que démunies de Connaisssance Universelle, mais des images merveilleuses et magiques, aussi riches de signes ambivalents que de sèmes ambigus, illuminées de formes et de couleurs inattendues, toutes d'innonbrables demiVérités.
Elles sont devenues sages, parce qu'elles savent que tout en prenant des milliards d'autres images, la Réalité Vraie leur restera à jamais inconnaissable. Elles sont devenues sages lorsqu'elles cherchent ce qu'il y a hors champ, lorsqu'elles cherchent ce qui se passait avant et ce qui arrivera après, lorsqu'elles cherchent l'invisible sous l'infra-rouge et au-delà de l'ultra-violet, lorsqu'elles cherchent ce qu'il y a à voir ailleurs quand elles sont là, et là quand elles sont ailleurs, en somme lorsqu'elles cherchent, . . simplement parce qu'elles cherchent.
Elles sont devenues sages lorsqu'elles s'interrogent sur ce que pensent et ressentent profondément, les autres petites chambres obscures d'à coté. Lorsque de temps en temps, interconnectées sur le réseau des réseaux des camera-obscura, elles se racontent leurs éblouissements respectifs et partagent leurs aveuglements réciproques.
Elles sont devenues sages, émerveillées d'être des mémoires qui résistent à l'Entropie, émerveillées d'être sensibles à l'infime surface visible de l'inconnaissable, émerveillées d'être à la fois transcendantes et illusoires, là, sur le pli du Vide Médian.
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Study of the day (debating the Plato's allegory of the cavern)
"THE ALLEGORY OF CAMERA & OBSCURA".
Once upon a time there was two small dark boxes, illuminated with certainties, two small empty heads, full of hope, and whose sensitive soul was waiting until the external light penetrates them to dazzle them with an image of the "True Reality”. At the proper time, they finally opened.
Camera in pursuit of the Absolute, wanted all to see without any reflection. All, absolutely All ! Then, at the proper time, it decided to be totally overcome by the "True Entropic Reality", all its sensitivity offered to intensely feel everything, without any prejudice, without thinking one second with all these words which darkens the mind more than they enlighten it. It installed a hypersensitive film which it will push in spite of its coarse grain. It tuned her diaphragm to the maximum aperture, a long time, and gave up itself to ecstatically feel the whole true light of the whole True Entropic Reality.
Obscura in quest of the Universal Knowledge, wanted all to know precisely, it wanted all to understand and memorize with a maximum of details and discernment. Then at the proper time, it decided to focuse a depth of field as deep as possible, to choose a pause time as short as possible, to be sure to get the highest neatness of the True Real Universal Memory. It installed a hyperfine grain film which it will develop energetically to compensate its low sensitivity. It tuned the aperture at less than anything, and adjusted the pause time at an infinitesimal fraction of nothing.
The moral of the story ? All the photographers will say it to you !
Camera obtained the most luminous image which is at ounce the fuzziest one, an immaculate uniform Absolute Entropic white 100%blank.
Obscura obtained the finest image which is at ounce the darkest one, an immaculate uniform Universal black 100%blank.
From now on, when it chooses an aperture and a time of pause suitable to create less blind images, Camera finally formed in itself several suspicions of True Reality. They are images as poor of Absolute Sensitivity as weak of Universal Knowledge, but they are marvellous and magic images, illuminated by unexpected shapes and colors.
In the neighbourhood of the Absolute Entropy, each cell of Camera opens like a white sapphire prism dispersing and breaking up the Entropic light in colored iridescences. From her cells juxtaposition are emerging lines and shapes, metamorphosing the dazzling Entropic light in simple but unknowable .. shapes, only lacking some .. words to name them.
From now on, when it chooses an aperture and a time of pause suitable to create less blind images, Obscura finally formed in itself several suspicions of True Reality. They are images as poor of Universal Knowledge as weak of Absolute Sensitivity, but they are marvellous and magic images, rich of ambiguous signs and senses.
In the neighbourhood of the Universal Memory, each cell of Obscura opens like a black sapphire crystal dispersing and breaking up the universal darkness in colored enlightening sparks. From her cells juxtapositions are emerging now vowels, consonants and others signs, metamorphosing the gloomy universal darkness in simple but unknowable .. words, only lacking some .. shapes to imagine them.
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| . rectO-persO . | . E ≥ m.C² . | . co~errAnce . | . TiLt . |
ꒌ ﹏﹏ ГЕНЕРАЦИЈА, танкер за течна горива (ближе) мимоилази се са незнатно већим холандским теретњаком ПАНДОРОМ (удаљенији, види се само задњи део, надградња и крма).
Ово је прва серија слика коју сам поставио овог новог, тек начетог априла 2026. Свима који ово читају и гледају желим благополучан, миран и добрим чињењем плодан април. Посебно вам желим здраво расуђивање у смутним временима која би се могла назвати и Година Пандорине кутије. Јер тешко да ће се до маја па чак и до лета нешто разрешити. Злочинитељи су упорни у свом злочињењу. Иза њих је милијарда равнодушних или крвожедних.
Ми пак имамо слободу да чувамо свој поглед на свет око нас и не учествујемо у злу већ у добру; макар и само мислено. Желим вам много ’погођених’ снимака у првом месецу који у целини лежи у пролећу – за неке најлепшем годишњем добу. У овом месецу нас чека експлозија светлости, а онда у мају — експлозија живота! Што су и два најважнија предуслова и компоненте сваке фотографије :)
► █░▓ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ GENERATION and PANDORA cross path.
GENERATION (closer, the bow) is an inland, liquid cargo tanker, sailing under the flag of Germany. She is 109 meters long and 11 meters wide with a draught of 2,3 meters. Here seen downstream. At the moment of uploading this she is stopped at the town of Niederkassel (near Cologne in Germany) on the river Rhine.
PANDORA (further, just the superstructure and the stern), is an inland motor freighter, sails under the flag of Netherlands. She is 110 meters long and 11,5 meters wide with a draught of 2,5 meters. Here seen just passing by the beacon at Buurtje in North Brabant. At the moment of uploading this she is underway on the river Scheldt at the Dutch/Belgian border.
Captured two minutes after the astronomical sunset. With the sun at the surface of the Earth gone, all the light on the water is reflected from the sky. Being already subdued, the scenery was dark and murky. So I lifted the brightness of the scenery a bit.
This is the first series of images I am uploading in April of 2026. I want each and everyone of you who made it so far, reading this caption and enjoying the scene, a happy, peaceful and sunny April this year. Lots of necessary wisdom. Undisturbed reflexion. Creative approach and clear insightful outlook on the world around us. Lots of worthy clicks and timeless captures as well as sound discernment in the first month that lies fully in the spring. It has just commenced. April is the Light Bringer, and May is the Life Bearer. Both being those very essentials we need so much for our photography!
Panasonic G90 / Lumix G Vario 12-35mm/f2.8 zoomed in to 30 mm (60 mm in full-frame terms, my favourite focal length). Overexposed ⅔ of a stop. Handheld with support. Shutter speed priority 1/400 of a sec resulting in f/2.8 at ISO 800 – WB manual (shade). Sooc jpeg edited in Photos 10.0. Uncompressed, cropped to 16×10 format.
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To start the slideshow: go to my ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏsᴛʀᴇᴀᴍ. At the upper right of the screen – right next to the 'search' magnifying glass🔍 – click the small ‚play‘▶️ ᴀʀʀᴏᴡ inside the symbol of a ᴍᴏɴɪᴛᴏʀ️ rectangle.
File name: P1064546
#11 Al-Khaliq
The Creator
The sky, so beautiful and glorious:
God said, "then turn thy gaze again towards it."
As regards this roof of light,
don't be content with just one look:
look many times; see:
Are there any flaws?
Since He has told you to look often
at this excellent roof, examining it for flaws,
know then, how much discernment the dark earth needs.
Rumi, Mathnawi II:2946-2949, tr. Helminski
The sun came out today so I retook the fluorite with much better light. Here the crystals are back-lit by the low sun.
Fluorite is a halide mineral composed of calcium fluoride, CaF2.
Fluorite is "The Stone of Discernment"
www.flickr.com/photos/lynnette_henderson/4101589376/in/se...
The process of seeing is accomplished through the discernment of differences or contrast and this principle of seeing operates on all levels -- JJ Dewey
... maybe too philosophical (did i spell that right?)...
Surprising joyed but very impressed I am on returning from my contact libela's gallery of FINE ART at www.libela.ca/index_html.html
Please journey to her other far away kingdom yourself and open your eyes discerning
www.flickr.com/photos/libela/2371912594/
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below from www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/soren_kierkegaard.html
are a few quotes from Soren Kierkegaard, Danish Philosopher
Date of Birth: May 5, 1813
Date of Death: November 11, 1855
I begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself so great a bore as to contradict me in this.
I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.
I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both.
If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe.
It belongs to the imperfection of everything human that man can only attain his desire by passing through its opposite.
It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.
It seems essential, in relationships and all tasks, that we concentrate only on what is most significant and important.
It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.
Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.
Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward.
Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.
EXPLORE # 293 on Wednesday, April 9, 2008; & # 406 on Thursday, April 10, 2008
Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/knocking-at-the-door-movie/
Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus
Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesusprophesied, "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him" (Matthew 25:6). "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). For the last two thousand years, believers in the Lord have been watchful and awaiting the Lord's knock on the door, so how will He knock on mankind's door when He returns? In the last days, some people have testified that the Lord Jesus has returned—Almighty God incarnate—and that He is doing the work of judgment in the last days. This news has rocked the entire religious world.
Yang Aiguang, the protagonist of the film, has believed in the Lord for decades and has always been enthusiastically engaged in work and preaching, waiting to welcome the Lord's return. One day, two people come and knock on the door, tell Yang Aiguang and her husband that the Lord Jesus has returned, and share the words of Almighty God with them. They are deeply moved by Almighty God's words, but because Yang Aiguang has been subjected to the fallacies, deception, and strictures of the pastors and elders, she throws the witnesses of The Church of Almighty God out of the house. After that, the witnesses knock on their door on many occasions and read the words of Almighty God to Yang Aiguang, bearing witness to God's work in the last days. During this time, the pastor disrupts and hinders Yang Aiguang time after time, and she continues to waver. However, through hearing the words of Almighty God, Yang Aiguang comes to understand the truth and gains discernment regarding the rumors and fallacies propagated by the pastors and elders. She finally understands how the Lord knocks on people's doors during His return in the last days, and how we should welcome Him. When the fog clears, Yang Aiguang finally hears the voice of God and acknowledges that Almighty God really is the return of the Lord Jesus!
Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.
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in the evening light
at the coast of baltic sea
*
When I Am Among the Trees
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."
Mary Oliver
Wonder Woman: -the harsh conditions of war, perfectly understood, but surely the killing should be cut back.
Shiroko Bokushi: Princess, we are not murderers. It seems unreasonable for you to apply the terms you've just used to the incidents of battlefield executions. Those were not beings capable of moral discernment. They were automatons of evil. Creatures with minds only for destruction. To what purpose would one spare them? They cannot be changed from their nature, so you can't let them free, and it seems a greater injustice to cage them.
Wonder Woman: I know the monstrosities you're speaking of. I fought them personally. But there were others.
Shiroko Bokushi: There were a handful of incidents where-
Wonder Woman: Sabre.
Shiroko Bokushi: -combatants... yes, Sabre, and she does seem to raise the ire of the Justice League. Princess, from what I know about your home, there is much of war, no? And you yourself are a warrior?
Wonder Woman: Priestess, the reason I, and not Superman or Batman, am discussing this with you is because I am sympathetic to your position. I have killed in battle and under different circumstances would do so again. I believe that's the point you were approaching. But I am a member of the Justice League and I would be a poor member if I did not bow to the authority of the organization over my personal whims.
Shiroko Bokushi: Of course, Princess, and I agree with your sentiment. We are to subject ourselves to all authorities of mankind as they are God-given, but this is hardly a "whim". Then it would be no better than murder. But are you not instead carried by a deep conviction for justice?
Om Malik carries with him the quiet gravity of someone who has seen the world change and helped shape its direction. He is one of my oldest friends, someone I’ve known for more than twenty years. We have stood together on icy runways in Svalbard and watched the blue light stretch endlessly across Greenland. In those places, conversation slows and the essential rises to the surface. With Om, the essential is never far away.
He grew up in India, in a world rich with contrast and complexity. The streets were full of movement, full of the textures and sounds that would later find their way into his voice as a writer. He arrived in the United States with curiosity and drive, and he never stopped paying attention. That gift for attention became his craft.
Om became one of the most influential technology journalists of our time. He worked with major publications, wrote with clarity and insight, and often knew where the story was going before it arrived. He did not chase trends. He understood patterns. When he founded GigaOm, he built a platform that reflected his belief in deep, thoughtful reporting. It was never about clicks. It was about signal over noise.
Later, as a partner at True Ventures, he turned that same discernment toward people. Founders sought him out not only for his experience but for his honesty. He listened more than he spoke. When he gave advice, it came from a place of hard-won wisdom.
There is a softness in Om’s eyes, and also something unyielding. He is kind, but not naïve. He dresses like he writes…elegantly, precisely, with deep attention to detail. His handmade shoes, the rich navy tones of his jackets and shirts, the sharp frames of his glasses. None of it is loud, but all of it speaks. There is joy in his choices. He understands that what we surround ourselves with can be an extension of how we move through the world.
He is also a photographer of rare subtlety. His images often feature landscapes pared down to their bones. A single horizon. A lone figure. A curve of light across snow. You feel the stillness in them, the invitation to breathe. His work reflects his own sensibility - quiet, thoughtful, poetic. There is always more going on than you first see.
In person, Om brings that same energy. He is deeply present. You feel seen when you are with him. You feel the care in his questions. And you notice his half-smile, that look of amused recognition, as though he is reading both the moment and the unwritten caption beneath it.
What makes Om remarkable is not just his resume, though that alone would be enough. It is the way he has chosen to be in the world. He holds space for others. He mentors, advises, encourages. He is still shaping the future, not from the front page, but from the quieter rooms where real conversations happen.
This portrait of Om was taken in a moment of stillness. He stood in soft light, one hand raised to his face, the other crossed over his chest. The frame is black and white, but his presence comes through in full color. Thoughtful, grounded, unmistakably himself.
To me, he is more than a friend. He is a guide. A mirror. A constant. One of the rare people whose way of being makes everyone around him want to be better.
Walking through an old semi-abandoned National Heritage site in Cape Town we came accross a van with bottles filled with water and different colour dye. There was no-one around to explain why these bottles where here or their purpose. So it got me thinking about colour theraphy, Heres what I found. . .
Red
Red is a powerful colour that has always been associated with vitality and ambition. It can help overcome negative thoughts. However, it is also associated with anger; if we have too much red in our system, or around us, we may feel irritable, impatient, and uncomfortable.
Blue
Blue is a cool, calming colour and is associated with a higher part of the mind than yellow. It represents the night, so it makes us feel calm and relaxed as if we are being soothed by the deep blue of the night sky. Light and soft blue, make us feel quiet and protected from all the bustle and activity of the day, and alleviates insomnia. Blue inspires mental control, clarity, and creativity. Midnight blue has a strong sedative effect on the mind, allowing us to connect to our intuitive and feminine side. Too much dark blue can be depressing however.
Orange
Orange is a joyous colour. It frees and releases emotions and alleviates feelings of self-pity, lack of self worth, and unwillingness to forgive. It stimulates the mind, renewing interest in life; it is a wonderful anti-depressant and lifts the spirits.
Yellow
Yellow is also a happy, bright, and uplifting colour, a celebration of sunny days. It is associated with the intellectual side of the mind, and the expression of thoughts. It aids the powers of discernment and discrimination, memory and clear thinking, decision-making and good judgment. It helps good organization, assimilation of new ideas, and the ability to see different points of view. It builds self-confidence and encourages an optimistic attitude. Conversely, dull yellow can be the colour of fear
Green
Green has a strong affinity with nature, helping us connect with empathy to others and the natural world. We instinctively seek it out when under stress or experiencing emotional trauma. It creates a feeling of comfort, laziness and relaxation, calmness, and space, lessening stress, balancing and soothing the emotions. Lime green and olive green can have a detrimental effect on both physical and emotional health since sickly yellow and green are associated with the emotions of envy, resentment, and possessiveness.
Testimony of a Christian: How She Overcame the Temptation to Have an Affair (Audio Essay, Part 1)
This question made Jingru’s heart surge again, and she didn’t know what to say. She just silently prayed to God in her heart: “O God! Please protect my heart and keep me from doing anything that would offend Your disposition.” After she’d prayed, she thought of these words of God which say: “Their words nourish your heart and captivate you so that you become disoriented and without realizing it, you are sucked in and willing to be of service to them, be their outlet as well as their servant. You have no complaints at all but are willing to be at their disposal—you are deceived by them” (“Your Character Is So Lowly!”). God’s words once again awakened Jingru, and she knew that the surging in her heart was because she was falling under the control of evil lusts; this was Satan putting its cunning scheme into action to seduce her, to make her live in sin and lose the testimony of a Christian, and to make her sink into physical lust and become more and more degenerate and corrupt. Therefore, she knew that she must have discernment, and must see through Satan’s cunning scheme. Wang Wei was already married—that was a fact—and Jingru knew that she could not be deceived into losing her reason because of some passing sweet words. If she really did take a wrong step and say some wrong things, then she would become Satan’s fool, she would be serving as Satan’s outlet and she would become the disgraceful other woman; the outcome would be a broken family, endless pain for Wang Wei’s wife and children, and she herself would be irreparably stained before God—the consequences were unthinkable.
Recommended for You: What is salvation
2019 Gospel Movie | "faith in God 2 – After the Church Falls" | The True Story of Chinese Christians
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/faith-in-God-2-movie/
Introduction
Since the Chinese Communist Party came to power, it has continuously suppressed and persecuted Christianity and Catholicism in order to fully eradicate all religious beliefs and establish China as a zone of atheism. Particularly since Xi Jinping became President the CCP's attacks on faith have reached a peak, and even the officially sanctioned Three-Self Church is being eradicated and crosses are being torn down.
Yu Congguang is an evangelist who makes a dangerous escape from a CCP mass arrest. Afterward, he makes his way to the home of Three-Self Patriotic Movement Christian Chen Song'en. Chen Song'en's Three-Self Patriotic Movement church is demolished by the CCP, and some in the church, after listening to the teachings of their pastors and elders, pray for the CCP regime, believing that by doing so, they are keeping the words of the Lord Jesus, ""Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"" (Matthew 5:44). However, many believers are confused, because despite the fact that they have prayed for blessings for the CCP for so many years, the CCP has not only failed to repent, but has even demolished their church. They wonder: Does praying for the CCP actually accord with God's will? The congregation argues about the question but can't reach a conclusion. Later, through reading God's words and the fellowship of Yu Congguang and his associate, Chen Song'en and the others learn the true meaning of the Lord Jesus' teaching to ""love your enemies."" They also gain discernment of the CCP's satanic essence, which is to resist God and loathe the truth, and clearly see the dangerous consequences of following the pastors and elders down the Three-Self path and relying on the protection of a satanic ruling power …
Recommended for You ：Christian Inspirational Movie
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In 1849, the Tallahassee population had grown to almost 1,800 men, women, and children. From this diverse population, four men and five women organized the Baptist Church of Tallahassee. Of these nine original members, one was to become governor and another state comptroller.
Throughout our 172 year history, many members have occupied positions of leadership in private business and industry as well as in the public sector, including governors, university presidents, college deans, professors, coaches, judges, legislators, commissioners, and mayors. The first church building was situated on the south side of College Avenue on a lot purchased for $500. With missionary pastors sent from the Home Mission Board, the membership grew until the Civil War began. There was no post-war record of ministry until 1880 when Rev. A.C. McCants was sent to lead the church.
In September 1894 the name of the church was changed to The First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, and from meager purses, the building was remodeled, refinished, and reoccupied on January 21, 1900. With a membership of 407, a new church structure was dedicated in November 1915 with the coming of Pastor-builder J. Dean Adcock. First Baptist Church continued to serve the needs of the Tallahassee community in the 1920s and 1930s. But the 1940s brought an influx of World War II personnel. When the Florida State College for Women became the co-educational Florida State University, students were filling every service and it was time to build again. Dr. Harold G. Sanders led us through an eight-year building program that ended with the completion of our second-century church in 1957.
In the subsequent years, First Baptist Church recognized the need for additional churches in Tallahassee and responded by establishing six mission churches. Additional structures were also added to our existing location under the guidance of Dr. Robert W. McMillian, including construction of a multi-purpose Christian Life Center in 1974 and administrative offices in 1987. Additional buildings were also purchased in 1998 for future expansion.
During the end of the twentieth century, we gave prayerful consideration to relocating our church. During that time of discernment, we waited on God for direction regarding our place of future ministry. We concluded a study in 2009 and came to the decision that our present location is where God wants us to be for as long as Jesus tarries. Today, we proudly state that we are here…for life, and we embrace that calling joyfully and hopefully.
No other community organization can substitute for us in testifying to the abundant life Jesus gives. We believe that God called us to pursue a phased renovation of our entire campus so that we might be able to offer first-century ministry in a twenty-first-century context that meets the spiritual needs of every generation and life stage. In August 2009, we adopted a set of recommendations for Phase I of our plan, to include roof repairs, renovations to the Fellowship Hall and Christian Life Center as well as the Children’s and Youth Ministry areas. In addition, our plan included a brand-new Welcome Center and Atrium that serve as a connecting point for all of our buildings. In August 2011, we completed all of the Phase I plans, and we began utilizing all of our new and renovated facilities.
As we look toward the future, we are excited about what God is doing in and through First Baptist. Jesus has promised to “build his church,” and as we continue to follow him, we look with anticipation toward his continued blessing upon us.
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Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/knocking-at-the-door-movie/
Second Coming of Christ Movie | "Knocking at the Door" | How to Be Raptured to the Kingdom of Heaven by Lord Jesus
Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesusprophesied, "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him" (Matthew 25:6). "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). For the last two thousand years, believers in the Lord have been watchful and awaiting the Lord's knock on the door, so how will He knock on mankind's door when He returns? In the last days, some people have testified that the Lord Jesus has returned—Almighty God incarnate—and that He is doing the work of judgment in the last days. This news has rocked the entire religious world.
Yang Aiguang, the protagonist of the film, has believed in the Lord for decades and has always been enthusiastically engaged in work and preaching, waiting to welcome the Lord's return. One day, two people come and knock on the door, tell Yang Aiguang and her husband that the Lord Jesus has returned, and share the words of Almighty God with them. They are deeply moved by Almighty God's words, but because Yang Aiguang has been subjected to the fallacies, deception, and strictures of the pastors and elders, she throws the witnesses of The Church of Almighty God out of the house. After that, the witnesses knock on their door on many occasions and read the words of Almighty God to Yang Aiguang, bearing witness to God's work in the last days. During this time, the pastor disrupts and hinders Yang Aiguang time after time, and she continues to waver. However, through hearing the words of Almighty God, Yang Aiguang comes to understand the truth and gains discernment regarding the rumors and fallacies propagated by the pastors and elders. She finally understands how the Lord knocks on people's doors during His return in the last days, and how we should welcome Him. When the fog clears, Yang Aiguang finally hears the voice of God and acknowledges that Almighty God really is the return of the Lord Jesus!
Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.
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Maybe, no not maybe rather too much of everything found in silence and in sound altogether not different rather in allied divisions of the infinite each one a part of THE ONE, every fulfilling all and so generating THE ALL.
At the entrance to Brochs there are small corbelled dens that some see as dog houses with them positioned so that the pack is poised ready to either blockade with their furious sea of swirling strength, or to welcome you through with their frantic show of faith. Dogs are marvellous. We are not always good enough for them.
On Orkney there are places that have been found with animal signatures. Presumed as totem items to bring an identify to the people in kit, kith and clan. There is famously The Tomb of the Eagles and then there is The Tomb of the Hounds, or as many say The Tomb of the Dogs which is neither as find rich nor as recent so less detailed than The Tomb of the Eagles. Then there is your individual discernment, even discrimination. The Hound faithful and helpful is often not seen as high on the animal scale of some perceived divine dignitary of animals where almost in a scoring game people hone their perceptions on the height, length and purpose in flight, upon the ground and within waters. Shamanistic ideals of purpose and best use might be wrapped tighter in smaller, shorter and more acclimatised and best designed ideals. For me The Tomb of the Dogs has always held me in very fond canine fascination.
“The skulls of 24 dogs on the chamber floor.”
Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn - History
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/cuween-...
I find revelation and regeneration in historic places. They are a fight for me to reach and an utter tremendous moment to be in washed with history, robed in mystery and released from the painful pressing concerns. The journeys, the quests and the healing pathways never end in the ancient places. The people that sited the ancient places had open space to fit their framework into place. The memories of such places are to me fantastic visions. As I type the Moon shines in Cuween and I am howling...
I have been to Cuween before and it has had me in awe since I heard about The Tomb of the Dogs, visited the chambered cairn and revisited The Tomb of the Hounds. I was happy sat in the burial area thinking and not thinking, in and out of the moment with nothing and everything all together with each other and at once, at one and at none. I had been so ill and now the world could stop and carry on and every part was sung in a song of fantastic fates and wondrous wyrd, of cunning craft and of great working, of time given, enjoyed and never forgotten, all of everything spoken held in human token of a pattern of life left open...
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
Cuween Hill Chambered Cairn
www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/cuween-...
Cuween Hill
canmore.org.uk/site/2059/cuween-hill
“...one of 24 dog skulls found in a Neolithic passage tomb – the so-called 'tomb of the dogs' – at Cuween Hill in Orkney.”
“This is the only dog skull to have made it into a museum; the others are believed to be lost.”
www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/scottish-hi...
4K YouTube version
The Young Hugger Mugger
Chapter 1
The Meaning of a Phrase
Apologies in advance to anyone who peruses this and comes away with thinking that it reads like the plot of yet another badly directed flick. Real-life can appear to be played out that way in the sometimes!
That bit being said...
Unescapable Boredom has always been a trigger for some of my most peevish muses, and sometimes that has landed me in quite hot water!
And whilst dwelling in my Unescapable boredom on this particular evening….
I had noticed the youth, a typical 13-year-old male, with typical, shall we say yearnings, scampering happily about at the reception hall which was our lot to be in on that late night.
And this particular lad’s activities were quite interesting from my admittedly cynical standing point of observation...
But first, please allow me to explain one’s self and reason for being in that quite overly posh venue.
I was one of several fellow professors at the university who had been invited to the son of a female colleague’s nuptials ( in other words, no close relationship to the groom, whom I only had bloody met, once... can anyone say a free gift for the gits?!).
He was marrying a rather affluent young Lass he had hitched up with from Wrexham way, and it was in that city, several hours away, that the couple decided to tie the knot, dragging his family, and us I might add, all along with him to travel there.
Now Wrexham is a nice enough place to visit, but preferring not to waste the whole weekend away from my invitingly stoic stone cottage, its quiet gardens, me pipe, and a snifter of fine old brandy… I had only booked in for an overnighter...
So it twas, that on an early, misting Saturday Morn, our entourage left for the long trog to make it in time for the noon wedding.
We arrived in the city of Wrexham with twenty minutes to spare and began our pleasant wind along with the old Girl’s nostalgic neighborhoods.
There are quite a few fine old churches in Wrexham, and the one where the nuptial ceremonies were to be held was, in my personal opinion, the finest.
The wedding was upscale smashing, starting with the rather gothic Blackstone church decorated like it was a set up for some fancy magazine photoshoot for an even more posh magazine.
The bride, once she made her appearance, continued on with the opulence, wearing high priced designers, sunglass wincing rhinestone decked, white satin number! While her girls in the bridal wore matching, equally rhinestoned inlaid gowns by the same designer! All were expensively form fitted in flowy bloody-red satin, ‘cept the maid of honour, a stunning redhead whose matching gown was of a bewitching midnight black! The groomsmen wore jet black tuxes, the groom wore a white tux and tails, looking like Fred Astaire complete with top hat and cane( but sans rhinestones ) … and indeed there was a bit of a movie like an ambiance hanging over the whole affair!
The reception venue was held at a fancy hall that had been repurposed from an old eel tinning factory. A most interesting venue, with no taint of its former occupant. And with all its most opulent trappings, looked like a stark continuation of the posh photoshoot like the atmosphere of the church, but in this case, set up in an alleyway like ambiance!
So I guess the affair overall was a nice enough bit of eye candy for those of us “privileged” enough to be invited.
I must add, I personally did not feel privileged, but judging by the openly blurted remarks of a gaggling trio of someone’s elderly maiden aunties( not mine thank Lord) we all were supposed to feel that way for being there!
Privileged was certainly not a verb I was going to choose!
Especially seeing that only 4 of us from the group invited from the university made the trip ( the others successfully coming up with valid excuses, the lucky prigs!)
In my tweeds and tie, I was feeling more of being on an isolated island in the stream of gaily dressed guests!
Chapter 2
The Sheer Humanity of it all!
So outside us four, and the bride’s parents, we were complete strangers to everyone else. Including the son of my colleague, the groom, whom I had only met once on a golf outing a few years back.
And pretty much the four of us found ourselves alone and ignored… !!
Then as the evening wore on, there was no pretty much about it, being stranded alone I dare say!
For I found myself completely alone!
Due to two of our group taking early leave ( The devils decided not to spend the night) and the fourth had taken up with a young man she had met ( I would say cougar if I was not a proper gentleman and actually rather fond of the lass meself!) ….
So I was sitting there, at an empty table, and soon the boredom began its subtle creeping in ...
I had not been guiling enough to plan a quick excuse to exit, nor so lucky to find someone dance with, so I made my way off the island and waded over to the bar and took up a solitary vigil on a padded stool. The watered-down drinks were free, so after about 5 old fashions along with two shots of a surprisingly decent scotch, I was feeling pretty good actually!
But even though I was enjoying meself in that aspect, I was still a wee bit bored, and therefore started peevishly musing about, you know, things…
Fancy Gowns shimmering jewels, sweaty dancers, weaselly eyed gits, and fox’s amongst the hens….Were all the wild diverse avenues my mind travelled along at that time and junction…
And it was during my boredom tinged thoughts when I again caught sight of the lad…
I, of course, had seen him earlier when we first arrived and was busy getting drinks for my group from the bar.
His mother was the satin gowned maid of honour to her bride sister, and he had been latched onto her at the waist of her midnight black bridesmaid’s attire, hanging on joyfully as she was in conversation with the best man.
I soon found out that the lad’s Maid of Honour mother was single. But though very pretty, she was no older than some of my students!
But at that time my attention was pulled away anyways’ by a plate of Hors d'oeuvres being passed around and as I ate and mingled with my colleagues, I continued to watch the lad and his antics from the corner of my eye.
Then dinner was announced, and as We made way to our seating, the lad totally escaped my mind… till now...
And now, here I was, observing the lad’s promiscuous antics again
Taking sips of my current old fashion, I had been watching with mesmerized interest, the Bride’s Mother.
She was a rather attractive lady, young for her age, who was wearing a rather fetching gown of sleek blue ruffling satin that flowed jauntily along with her fine fully feminine figure, swishing and swaying most delightfully.
She was wearing a rather pricey ensemble of fine jewellery, including a short gold herringbone necklace set with a large fiery diamond at its’ centre, flanked by four glittery smaller stones. I found the whole package enticing enough that I was pondering over the dos or don’ts of asking for a dance...for she appeared not to be attached to any male courtesan.
It was as I was watching that I again saw the thirteen-year-old lad, sneaking up from behind a table and hug his grandmother, who leaned down to reciprocate...( the lady was petitely short, so she didn’t have far to bend) the diamonds in her swaying necklace rippling with pinpricks of expensive fire as the brushed the top of the lad’s tousled haired head!
So, he was still at it I thought…
Now, when I had seen him darting about earlier, while Hors d'oeuvres were being served. after finally being shaken loose by his mother, he had performed this hugging antic on his grandmother several times, and once each on his Bride Aunt and Maid of Honour Mother!
Now, this lad was also obviously across the threshold of young puberty: as was witnessed by his actions, in the way he was sneaking up and giving those graspy hugs of his, the fingers digging into the shiny satiny, tightly fitted, gowns of his targeted females.
They all thought it cute enough, especially the gullible Grandmother, who thought it was “precious” and just laughed, and squealed happily, “look another drive-by hugging”, or “thanks for the hug honey, it was needed”, encouraging to no end the youth to keep his voyeuristic advances up, for he attempted this several more times as I stood watching from the side-lines … Though his Grandmother was the only female not to fend off repeated attempts!
But, and damn me own eyes, I had noticed that far more was going on than just a bit of runaway hugging !!
The little miscreant was also Copping a bloody feel from his distracted victims!!
The Lads arms, as he hugged his grandmother’s warm figure before running off, were noticeably brushing just under her perk breasts, moulded nicely by the tight fitted ‘mother of the bride” gown she was attired in.
I also knew that, along with copping a feel, he was had also enjoying the tingling sensation from the slick satin material of the long, swishing gown the rather youngish, stylish wealthy grandmother was wearing…
Perhaps I was jealous?
It was as I watched him repeat this performance again and again, that my mind was taken off asking anyone to dance, and my attention started to follow this lad to see what he was all on about, to confirm my hypothesis if you will.
I soon saw that he was now turning his touchy attention upon a different source for his promiscuous behaviour!
Chapter 3
Huggery Muggery
The youngest of the bridesmaids by far was the 15-year-old sister of the Groom.
A rather immature teenager at that. Looking like some Disney princess! Quite resplendent in her fitted red satin gown and wearing rhinestone ensemble that matched that of the rest of her fellow, though much older, lady bridesmaids!
But she certainly was not acting like a proper princess as she now whisked about playing at cops and robbers with my 13-year-old mischievous lad.
Said Lad, whose fingers were doing more touching than just tagging the fancy dress of his fetchingly attired playmate.
So, ordering yet another old fashion(my seventh for those keeping tabs), I watched the pair…
Not really being a voyeur in my defence, for my professional interest does lay in the realm of the study of human nature, though as a criminologist this was a thin argument at best for applying it to the situation today...
Soon the girl was pulled away to join the bridal party who had started swishing about on the dance floor, and the lad, looking glumly on, and with all his “victims” out of reach on said dance floor, eventually headed off, and the direction he took was going led him straight past me!
I perkily noticed this fact, and my thoughts began to take on a new form!
I looked up over the top of his head to the dance floor, rather envious that I was not able to participate with a fluttery satin gown, jewel laden lady of my own!!
I spied the young 15-year-old bridesmaid dancing, she seemed to be enjoying herself as she slow danced with her 17-year-old partner, who otherwise had been basically ignoring the fetching attired lass!.
I also caught sight of her necklace as it was caught up in the lights.
It was glittering u a storm, sparkling madly in the dim lights, as were the rhinestones on her dress!
I looked around; all the bridesmaid’s opulent rhinestones were sparkling. The Grandmother was also sparkling about on the floor, dancing with some spiff in a tailored suit!
Despite my misery at being there, I felt something stirring up inside of me.
Not surprisingly (to me) a rather mischievous thought came into my head propelled by a combination of the resplendent bridesmaids dancing on the floor, the attractive glittering of rhinestones, the approaching lad, and the fact that I was really quite blasé about the whole affair, being stuck there and all!
Of course, I was also probably a wee bit more drunk than sober by that period in time, causing me to follow my whimsey without much sagacity or discernment...
My thought was in the direction of doing a quick, possibly amusing study, on channeling this approaching Lads spirited passions by broadening his horizons!
In simple terms, Tune the lad in on expanding his conquests through an adult’s apparent permission, then turn him loose to give “drive-by hugging’s” amongst the flock of dressed up bridesmaids may be most amusing... Like an amorous puppy scurrying in amongst a group of shiny feathered clucking chickens!
So, while I eyed the approaching lad, I nonchalantly put my hand into a jacket pocket fumbling for a selection of ever-present coins.
Now my Grandfather had been a magician of sorts, and I had been weaned on watching his sleight of hand tricks with coins. As a young man I had learned a few of them myself, ( as a way to meet the fairer sex of course) as well as a slew of card tricks, and always had a few props with me.
Do you ever have the feeling that you are just not here on this planet?
That everything is so beautiful, balanced and peaceful you can hear yourself breathe?
This was one of those moments for me, and why I love photography . . .
for capturing that instant and then having the memory for reflection, over and over again.
Would love to have you all join me today for some silent conversation.
“Wisdom is your perspective on life,
your sense of balance,
your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other.
It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension.
It is a gestalt or oneness, and integrated wholeness.”
~ Stephen R. Covey ~
"The temptation of mediocrity, though seldom part of our awareness due to its complexity and subtlety, needs to be exposed, illuminated, and identified in order to be overcome. In short, it requires discernment. The salve that God offers in the scripture passage--'to smear on your eyes so that you may see'--corresponds to this act of discernment." by Segundo Galilea in Temptation & Discernment (1996 ICS Publications, Institute of Carmelite Studies, Washington, D.C.) translated by Stephen-Joseph Ross, O.C.D. See www.icspublications.org/
EXPLORE # 192 on Tuesday, March 4, 2008
English Christian Movie "Deadly Ignorance" | Who Should We Listen to in Welcoming the Lord's Return
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/deadly-ignorance-movie/
Zheng Mu'en is a co-worker at a Chinese Christian church in the US, has believed in the Lord for many years, and passionately works and expends for the Lord. One day, his aunt testifies to him that the Lord Jesus has returned to express the truth and do the work of judging and purifying man in the last days, news which greatly excites him. After reading Almighty God's word and watching the movies and videos of The Church of Almighty God, Zheng Mu'en's heart verifies that Almighty God's words are the truth, and that Almighty God might very well be the return of the Lord Jesus, so he begins investigating the work of God in the last days with his brothers and sisters. But when Pastor Ma, the leader of his church, discovers this, he tries time and again to intervene and stop Zheng Mu'en. He shows Zheng Mu'en a CCP government propaganda video that slanders and condemns Eastern Lightning in an attempt to make Zheng Mu'en abandon his investigation of the true way, and this video leaves him very confused: He can obviously see that Almighty God's words are the truth and the voice of God, so why do the pastors and elders of the religious world condemn Almighty God? They not only themselves refuse to seek or investigate, they try to stop others from accepting the true way. Why is this? … Zheng Mu'en fears being deceived and taking the wrong path, but also fears losing his chance to be raptured. In the midst of his conflict and confusion, Pastor Ma presents even more negative propaganda from the CCP and the religious world, producing many more doubts in Zheng Mu'en's heart. He decides to listen to Pastor Ma and give up his investigation of the true way. Later, after hearing testimonyand fellowship from witnesses of The Church of Almighty God, Zheng Mu'en understands that in investigating the true way, the most fundamental principle is determining whether a way has the truth and whether what it expresses is the voice of God. Anyone that can express much of the truth must be the appearance of Christ, because no member of corrupt mankind could ever express the truth. This is an indisputable fact. If one does not focus on hearing the voice of God as they investigate the true way, and instead awaits the descent of the Lord Jesus on white clouds based on their imaginings, they will never be able to welcome the appearance of God. Zheng Mu'en finally understands the mystery of the wise virgins hearing God's voice spoken of by the Lord Jesus, decides to no longer believe the lies and absurd theories of the CCP government and the pastors and elders of the religious world, and escapes the constraints and bondage of his religious pastor. Zheng Mu'en experiences deeply the difficulty of investigating the true way. Without discernment or seeking the truth, there is no way to hear the voice of God or be raptured before God's throne. Instead, one can only be deceived and controlled by Satan and die in Satan's net, which entirely fulfills the words in the Bible, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hos 4:6). "Fools die for want of wisdom" (Pro 10:21).
Image Source: The Church of Almighty God
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If the gods of time are multiple like Aïon (that of eternity), or Chronos (the god of time, the son of Ouranos), to differentiate from his homophone Cronos (the equivalent of Saturn, who devoured his children), there is one that invites us to seize the moment, opportune, ephemeral...": Kaïros. A mythological figure close to Hermes and Eros, he is a true gift for feeling "the right moment". Unlike that of the Devil ("dividing one"), the function of Kaïros comes under the symbol ("putting together"), allowing to evaluate very quickly what presents itself and what should be done. Because it provides a disposition to discernment, to work in multiple fields (medicine, navigation, rhetoric, etc.), it allows to make a decision, quickly and well, among multiple possible ones. Few iconographic representations have illustrated him: he was a young man whose only tuft of hair on his head had to be grasped when he passed by... in order to seize the opportunity! Without seeing it or doing nothing, we passed by... Relevant to both secular decisive time and sacred time, it has the particularity of being in relation to synchronicity, synchronizing two events without causal link between them where time and action combine. The difficulty is to seize this time in a timely fashion, this time just right. Symbolic tools can help us, such as images, dreams, archetypal representations or other media, such as astrology or tarots. Kaïros is no stranger to astrology, an area that Jung also looked into at the beginning of his research. Thus in Paracelsica, or The Roots of Consciousness, Jung evokes the possibility of raising the patient's theme during his cure. The celestial symbolism of the birth theme can prove to be a formidable road map of the psyche's time. But Kaïros, god of the "right moment", can also be compared to the Tarots de Marseille, whose cards - in a particular draw - present the constellation of the "moment" for whoever consults them: is it time to seize or not what is presented? Far from the predictable linear physical time (Chronos), Kaïros acts on temporality, it mobilizes our ability to evaluate the circumstances in order to act neither too early nor too late. Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos referring to sequential time, and kairos, a moment of indeterminate time in which events happen: mood of universal destruction and renewal...has set its mark on our age. This mood
makes itself felt everywhere, politically, socially, and philosophically. We are living in what the Greeks called the kairos- the right moment- for a "metamorphosis of the gods,"
of the fundamental principles and symbols. We are living in what the Greeks called the kairos- the right moment- for a 'metamorphosis of the gods', of the fundamental principles and symbols. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious man within us who is changing. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of the unconscious human within us who is changing. Coming generations will have to take account of this momentous transformation if humanity is not to destroy itself through the might of its own technology and science....So much is at stake and so much depends on the psychological constitution of the modern human.
C. G. Jung
“…what is time? Who can give that a brief or easy answer? Who can even form a conception of it to be put into words? Yet what do we mention more often or familiarly in our conversation than time? We must therefore know what we are talking about when we refer to it, or when we hear someone else doing so. But what, exactly, is that? I know what it is if no one asks; but if anyone does, then I cannot explain it.”
-Saint Augustine, Confessions (book 11, chapter 3) (~400CE)
One thing is for sure, whatever the ego thinks time is—whatever spell it tries to cast with its alphabetic magic to capture it—it will almost certainly miss the mark. Whatever time is, we should admit we are mostly unconscious of it. In fact, it seems to me that there is an intimate connection, perhaps even an identity, between time and the Jungian notion of the unconscious, a connection that archetypal cosmology obviously substantiates. Despite time’s unconscious depths and ineffability, I am after all a philosopher, and we love nothing more than to try to “eff” the ineffable.
In the 15 brief minutes I have with you, I want to introduce, with help from the Ancient Greek language, 3 different modalities of temporality, or rather, I want to introduce you to 3 Gods, each with a powerful hand in shaping our experience of time: Chronos, Kairos, and Aion. In concrete experience, each mode appears to me at least to be co-present and interwoven; I only separate them abstractly to help us get a better sense for the anatomy of time. Of course, we should remember all the while that “we murder to dissect” (Wordsworth).
I therefore humbly ask for the blessing of the Gods of time as I embark on this short journey into their meanings. May you grant us entry into your mysteries.
A Brief History of (the Idea of) Time:
1. Plato suggests in the Timaeus that time is brought forth by the rhythmic dancing of the Sun, Moon, and five other planets then known upon the stage of 12 constellations. Through the cooperative and friendly circling of these archetypal beings, eternity is permitted entry into time. Time, in other words, is said to emerge from the harmonious or regular motion of the heavens—motion regulated by mathematical harmonies. Plato’s ancient vision of a perfect cosmic order had it that the motion of the 7 known planetary spheres was in mathematical harmony with the 8th supraplanetary sphere of fixed constellations, that the ratios of their orbits added up to one complete whole, finding their unity in what has been called the Platonic or Great Year (known to us today as the 26,000 year precession of the equinoxes). This highest of the heavenly spheres was the God known to the ancients as Aion.
2. Aristotle critiqued Plato’s idea of time as produced by motion. Aristotle argued that time couldn’t possibly be produced by motion, because motion itself is something we measure using time. Motion can be fast or slow, he argued, but time always flows at the same rate. Time is simply a way of measuring change. Aristotle’s conception of time, then, is chronic, rather than aionic. His was the beginning of the scientific view of time as a merely conventional measurement, rather than a cosmic motion, as with Plato.
3. Galileo’s view of the universe was, on the face of it, a complete rejection of Aristotle’s physics. Remember that Aristotle still held a teleological view of chronological time: an apple falls to the ground, for Aristotle, because it desires to do so, because earth is its natural home; for Galileo, nothing in the apple compels it to fall, it is simply a blind happening working according to mechanical laws. Galileo, like Newton and Descartes, rejected the idea of purposeful, meaningful time. Time became for them merely a function in a differential equation. In a sense, then, though the early scientists rejected Aristotle’s view of teleological time, they only further formalized Aristotle’s view of time as a measure of motion. Time became t, a variable quantity used to calculate the precise velocity of material bodies through space. 4. Einstein’s theory of relativity revealed how time and space are intimately related, since, strange as it may seem, as speed increases, time slows. But still, time is understood not on its own terms, but is reduced to a linear, easily measurable and quantifiable function. The reduction of time to Chronos may have begun with Aristotle, but was carried to new extremes by modern materialistic science. 5. Today we know things are quite a bit more chaotic than earlier thinkers, including Plato, let on: we live in a chaosmos, not a perfect cosmos; an open spiral not a closed circle. The orbital periods of the planets shift ever so slightly as the years pass, and the “fixed” stars are actually not fixed at all. Our universe is very strange, and measuring time is no easy matter. Even merely chronological time is extremely counter-intuitive: A day on Venus, for instance, is longer than a Venusian year. Everything is spinning around everything else. Time is then not a moving image of eternal perfection; rather, time is what happens when divinity loses its balance and gets dizzy. But don’t worry, there is nowhere to fall over in the infinite expanses of space. What is happening when referring to kairos depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative, permanent nature. The union of kairos and logos is the philosophical task set for us in philosophy and in all fields that are accessible to the philosophical attitude. The logos is to be taken up into the kairos, universal values into the fullness of time, truth into the fate of existence. The separation of idea and existence has to be brought to an end. It is the very nature of essence to come into existence, to enter into time and fate. This happens to essence not because of something extraneous to it; it is rather the expression of its own intrinsic character, of its freedom. And it is essential to philosophy to stand in existence, to create out of time and fate. It would be wrong if one were to characterize this as a knowledge bound to necessity. Since existence itself stands in fate, it is proper that philosophy should also stand in fate. Existence and knowledge both are subject to fate. The immutable and eternal heaven of truth of which Plato speaks is accessible only to a knowledge that is free from fate—to divine knowledge. The truth that stands in fate is accessible to him who stands within fate, who is himself an element of fate, for thought is a part of existence. And not only is existence fate to thought, but so also is thought fate to existence, just as everything is fate to everything else. Thought is one of the powers of being, it is a power within existence. And it proves its power by being able to spring out of any given existential situation and create something new! It can leap over existence just as existence can leap over it. Because of this characteristic of thought, the view perhaps quite naturally arose that thought may be detached from existence and may therefore liberate man from his hateful bondage to it. But the history of philosophy itself has shown that this opinion is a mistaken one. The leap of thought does not involve a breaking of the ties with existence; even in the act of its greatest freedom, thought remains bound to fate. Thus the history of philosophy shows that all existence stands in fate. Every finite thing possesses a certain power of being of its own and thus possesses a capacity for fate. The greater a finite thing’s autonomous power of being is, the higher is its capacity for fate and the more deeply is the knowledge of it involved in fats. From physics on up to the normative cultural sciences there is a gradation, the logos standing at the one end and the kairos at the other. But there is no point at which either logos or kairos alone is to be found. Hence even our knowledge of the fateful character of philosophy must at the same time stand in logos and in kairos. If it stood only in the kairos, it would be without validity and the assertion would be valid only for the one making it; if it stood only in the logos, it would be without fate and would therefore have no part in existence, for existence is involved in fate.What are the deep stirrings in the collective psyche of the West? Can we discern any larger patterns in the immensely complex and seemingly chaotic flux and flow of our age? Influenced by the depth psychology tradition founded a century ago by Freud and Jung,and especially since the 1960s and the radical increase in psychological self-consciousness that era helped mediate, the cultural ethos of recent decades has made us well aware how important is the psychological task of understanding our personal histories. We have sought ever deeper insight into our individual biographies, seeking to recover the often hidden sources of our present condition, to render conscious those unconscious forces and complexes that shape our lives. Many now recognize that same task as critical for our entire civilization. What individuals and psychologists have long been doing has now become the collective responsibility of our culture: to make the unconscious conscious. And for a civilization, to a crucial extent, history is the great unconscious- history not so much as the external
chronology of political and military milestones, but as the interior history of a civilization: that unfolding drama evidenced in a culture's evolving cosmology, its philosophy and science, its religious consciousness, its art, its myths. For us to participate fully and creatively in shaping our future, we need to better understand the underlying patterns and
influences of our collective past. Only then can we begin to grasp what forces move within us today, and perhaps glimpse what may be emerging on the new millennial
horizon. I focus my discussion here on the West, but not out of any triumphalist presumption that the West is somehow intrinsically superior to other civilizations and thus most worthy of our attention. I do so rather because it is the West that has brought forth the political,technological, intellectual, and spiritual currents that have been most decisive in
constellating the contemporary world situation in all its problematic complexity. For better or worse, the character of the West has had a global impact, and will continue to do
so for the foreseeable future. Yet I also address the historical evolution of Western consciousness because, for most of us reading these words, this development represents
our own tradition, our legacy, our ancestral cultural matrix. Attending carefully and critically to this tradition fulfills a certain responsibility to the past, to our ancestors, just as
attempting to understand its deeper implications fulfills a responsibility to the future, to our children. A paradox confronts every sensitive observer about the West: On the one hand, we cannot fail to recognize a certain dynamism, a brilliant, heroic impulse, even a nobility, at work in Western civilization and in Western thought. We see this in the great
achievements of Greek philosophy and art, for example, or in the Sistine Chapel and other Renaissance masterpieces, in the plays of Shakespeare, in the music of Bach or Beethoven. We see it in the brilliance of the Copernican revolution, with the tremendous cosmological and even metaphysical transformation it has wrought in our civilization's
world view. We see it in the unprecedented space flights of a generation ago, landing men on the moon, or, more recently, in the spectacular images of the vast cosmos coming
from the Hubbell telescope and the new data and new perspectives these images have brought forth. And of course the great democratic revolutions of modernity, and the
powerful emancipatory movements of our own era, vividly reflect this extraordinary dynamism and even nobility of the West. Yet at the same time we are forced to admit that this very same historical tradition has caused immense suffering and loss, for many other cultures and peoples, for many people within Western culture itself, and for many other forms of life on the planet. Moreover, the West has played the central role in bringing about a subtly growing and seemingly
inexorable crisis on our planet, a crisis of multidimensional complexity: ecological, political, social, economic, intellectual, psychological, spiritual. To say our global civilization is becoming dysfunctional scarcely conveys the gravity of the situation. For humankind and the planet, we face the possibility of great catastrophe. For many forms of life on the Earth, that catastrophe has already taken place. How can we make sense of this tremendous paradox in the character and meaning of the West? If we examine many of the intellectual and cultural debates of our time, particularly near the epicenter of the major paradigm battles today, it is possible to see looming behind them two fundamental interpretations, two archetypal stories or metanarratives, concerning the evolution of human consciousness and the history of the Western mind. In essence these two metanarratives reflect two deep myths in the collective psyche- and let us define myths here not as mere falsehoods, nor as collective fantasies of an arbitrary sort, but rather as profound and enduring patterns of meaning that inform the human psyche and constellate its diverse realities. These two great myths in the collective psyche structure our historical self-understanding in very different ways. One could be called the myth of progress, the other the myth of the fall. The first, familiar to all of us from our education, describes the evolution of human consciousness, and particularly the history of the Western mind, as an extraordinary progressive development, a long heroic journey from a primitive world of dark ignorance,
suffering, and limitation to a brighter modern world of ever increasing knowledge, freedom, and well-being. This great trajectory of progress is seen as having been made possible by the sustained development of human reason, and above all by the emergence of the modern mind. We recognize this view whenever we encounter a book or program whose title is something like "The Ascent of Man" or "The Discoverers" or "Man's Conquest of Space," and so forth. The direction of history is seen as onward and upward. Humanity is here often personified as "man," and imaged, at least implicitly, as
a solar masculine hero of Promethean character: bold, restless, brilliantly innovative, ceaselessly pressing forward with his intelligence and will, breaking out of the structures
and limitations of the past, forever seeking greater freedom and new horizons, ascending to ever higher levels of development. The apex of human achievement in this vision
begins with the ascendance of modern science and individualistic democracy. The view of history is one of progressive emancipation and empowerment. It is a vision that emerged fully in the course of the European Enlightenment, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though its roots are as old as Western civilization itself. In many respects our modern consciousness is so fully identified with this myth that it has become our common sense, the lineaments of our self-image as modern humans.The first, familiar to all of us from our education, describes the evolution of human consciousness, and particularly the history of the Western mind, as an extraordinary progressive development, a long heroic journey from a primitive world of dark ignorance,suffering, and limitation to a brighter modern world of ever increasing knowledge, freedom, and well-being. This great trajectory of progress is seen as having been made
possible by the sustained development of human reason, and above all by the emergence of the modern mind. We recognize this view whenever we encounter a book or program whose title is something like "The Ascent of Man" or "The Discoverers" or "Man's Conquest of Space," and so forth. The direction of history is seen as onward and upward. Humanity is here often personified as "man," and imaged, at least implicitly, as a solar masculine hero of Promethean character: bold, restless, brilliantly innovative, ceaselessly pressing forward with his intelligence and will, breaking out of the structures and limitations of the past, forever seeking greater freedom and new horizons, ascending
to ever higher levels of development. The apex of human achievement in this vision begins with the ascendance of modern science and individualistic democracy. The view
of history is one of progressive emancipation and empowerment. It is a vision that emerged fully in the course of the European Enlightenment, in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, though its roots are as old as Western civilization itself. In many respects our modern consciousness is so fully identified with this myth that it has become
our common sense, the lineaments of our self-image as modern humans. The other view, whose presence has become much stronger in our cultural discussion in
recent years, though it was always present to one extent or another as a compensatory countercurrent to the progressive view, describes this story in quite opposite terms. In the
form this myth has taken in our era, the evolution of human consciousness and the history of the Western mind are seen as a tragic story of humanity's radical fall and separation
from an original state of oneness with nature and with being. In its primordial condition, humankind had possessed an instinctive knowledge of the profound sacred unity and
interconnectedness of the world; but under the influence of the Western mind, and especially intensifying with the ascendance of the modern mind, the course of history has
brought about a deep schism between humankind and nature, and a desacralization of the world. This development has coincided with an increasingly destructive human
exploitation of nature, the devastation of traditional indigenous cultures, and an increasingly unhappy state of the human soul, which experiences itself as ever more
isolated, shallow, and unfulfilled. In this perspective, both humanity and nature are seen as having suffered grievously under a long domination of thought and society associated
with both patriarchy and modernity, with the worst consequences being produced by the oppressive hegemony of Western industrial societies empowered by modern science and technology. The nadir of this fall is seen as the present time of planetary ecological disaster, moral disorientation, and spiritual emptiness, which is the direct consequence of human hubris as embodied above all in the structure and spirit of the modern Western mind and ego. Here the historical perspective is one which reveals a progressive impoverishment of human life and the human spirit, a fragmentation of original unities, a ruinous destruction of the sacred community of being.
cosmosandpsyche.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/revision-rite...
it's way beyond what our eyes lead us to see.
May our sight be clear, directed and able to go beyond how we saw in 2018
In The Spirit Of Screwtape--20 Ways To Poison The Little Monsters
By Jared Moore on Apr 22, 2014
Sacred Cows ebook
Scripture: Genesis 45:14-21
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12 ESV).
(This is an excerpt from Monstra by Chemosh. This book is used to train mid-ranked demons in the Prince’s army.)
In order to poison the monsters He loves, the ones He calls men and even “children,” here are 20 things you must lead our slaves—and His—to do ...
1. Christianize popular ideas. In the United States, for example, tolerance equals love. Train them to quote 1 Corinthians 13 while ignoring other verses that are intolerant. Leaders must tell their hearers that love equals tolerance and equality, so that in the name of love leaders may encourage their hearers to love them by tolerating their heresy. No one wants to be labeled “intolerant” today because if one is labeled “intolerant” it’s the same as being labeled “unloving.” Use this reality to our advantage. Have the monsters care more about what other monsters think than what He thinks.
2. Put heresy in a Christian song with Christian lingo and a good beat. It will be sung in churches all over the world. Turn the music ministers to our side and rule the church. They are the new priests and popes in Evangelicalism.
3. Appeal to adolescence. Due to our influence and their depraved little hearts, every teenager and adult wants to break away from the ideas of their parents and grandparents. Train our slaves to cater to this adolescent mentality. Tell them to suggest that they’re teaching something relevant (new), as opposed to what their parents and grandparents previously taught. In other words, have them appeal to the pride of their hearers. Get them to train their hearers to believe that their spirituality is greater than the spirituality of those who came before.
4. Put heresy in a song with some sentimentality. Monsters easily forget who gave them their families and friends—Him. Many monsters like to sing about how mommies, babies, daddies, etc. are the glory of Heaven. We don’t care who they think the glory of Heaven is, so long as it’s not Him. Train our servants to capitalize on this weakness.
5. Create an atmosphere that makes people feel good. Heresy should anger His children, but if you make them feel good with the music, singing, prayers, videos, entertainment and sermons, then our servants can sneak heresy in. Monsters find it hard to recognize heresy when all of their senses are piqued. When the bottom-feeder likes what he sees, hears, feels, etc., thinking and discernment are cast aside. Train our monsters to lull their hearers into a euphoric sleep, so they then can deliver their poison.
6. Appeal to the sinful nature. Monsters love to hear how good they are, for their hearts hate their guilty consciences. Hide the light with darkness by appealing to the darkness that is already within them. In other words, do not expose their evil deeds as defined by Him; rather redefine “evil.” Remember, you cannot call light darkness. They will rebel against you if you do. But you can call darkness light when speaking of their hearts. They want to believe us because their hearts are like ours. Give them what they want.
7. Tell amazing stories. His monsters and ours alike love to hear amazing stories where He recently moved in a “mighty” way. They’re constantly looking for a new sign that He is not dead. They’ve heard the stories in the Bible enough. They long for something fresh and new. Give it to them. But use some Scripture to hide the heresy, so that your stories are treated as authoritative. Remember, there is no need to prove their authority; one only needs to preach them as authoritative.
8. Appeal to the idolatry of your hearers. We do not care whom they worship, so long as they do not worship Him. If your monsters live in an entertainment-centered society, make sure you train them to entertain while presenting their heresy. If they live in a postmodern society, make sure they say nothing absolute while appealing to the only truth they know: “I’m not sure.” Monsters love false-humility.
9. Speak in non-absolutes. Train our slaves to preface every sermon and lesson with “I think, I believe,” while never saying,“I know.” Eventually their hearers will see their beliefs as their beliefs, and not necessarily the beliefs of the prophets, apostles or Christ. The underlying assumption for such language is that there is no absolute truth. If there’s no absolute truth, then there’s no such thing as heresy. Their hearers will eventually redefine “orthodoxy” as “heterodoxy” while believing that neither exist. We’ve got them!
10. Dress it up in new clothes. Do not train our monsters to present heresy as previous heretics presented it. Instead, train them to dress up in new clothes. They must present the heresy like a scheming politician does. They should use catch-phrases that sound biblical. Most people will walk away thinking, saying, and believing their catch-phrases.
11. Major on specific Bible verses while intentionally ignoring those that contradict your interpretation. Biblical ignorance is our ally. Train our bottom-feeders to connect verses with other verses. Even if these verses have no contextual connection, if they use Scripture arbitrarily, they can teach heresyfrom the Bible. The goal is to give their hearers half-truths, but not the complete truth. Half-truths are the makeup of heresy, and some Scripture is your ally in this endeavor.
12. Change definitions. If you train our slaves to change the definitions of words, they can sign any confession or document, or agree with any orthodox doctrine. They know what they mean; just make sure no one else does. Have them please everyone a little bit. After all, when it comes to doctrine in evangelicalism, monsters don’t have tobe orthodox, they just need to sound orthodox. Even our Prince sounds orthodox.
13. Accustom your hearers to statements you tout as facts that cannot be proven. Train our slaves to make vague statements that hang in midair, such as “God is going to do something amazing,” “I feel like revival is coming,” “God told me someone is going to give a large sum of money,” etc. These statements all lack sufficient proof. There’s no timetable for validation. As their hearers grow more accustomed to unfounded, indemonstrable prophecies, they’ll seek no validation from their prophets for unfounded, indemonstrable heretical statements either.
14. Appear cool, sweet, hip or simply different from other pastors. Train our monsters to look like celebrities. They should say curse words from the pulpit occasionally. They should be “edgy,” a type of “shock-jock.” Train each generation to rebel against or redefine the light of the previous generation.
15. Pray like you’re a priest in the pulpit. Train our monsters to act like they’re receiving some special anointing that exalts them above their hearers as they preach. They should make statements like “God gave me a word for you today,” or “God told me that you needed to hear this sermon today.” This way, their hearers will come expecting to hear from Him through them, thinking that they have a word from Him, instead of believing that the Scriptures have a word from Him. See, our monsters can become His mouthpiece. Heresy is easy to indoctrinate when bottom-feeders think you speak for Him. The goal is for our hearers to view our monsters as types of priests, prophets, apostles, etc. who have divine authority. They must attack the priesthood of His children by exalting themselves in the pulpit, if their heresy is to be accepted by Bible-readers.
16. Get everyone to like your personality. If everyone likes our slaves, then they can say almost anything. Train them to always be positive and encouraging. Monsters need to feel secure, regardless of reality. If our slaves can make them feel secure, they will be ours forever.
17. Create a CANON within the Canon. Train our slaves to exalt the words of His Son above the words of the apostles. Act as if Christ’s words are greater than the words of the Holy Spirit spoken through the Scripture writers. Then they may reject the progressive revelation that further clarifies the words of Christ in the rest of the New Testament and replace it with their own heretical interpretations. Train them to teach their hearers that they know Christ better than the eyewitnesses who walked and talked with Him and recorded His works. Teach them that their interpretation of Christ’s words in the Gospels is better than the interpretation of Christ’s words by Luke, Peter, Paul, John, Jude and James in the rest of the New Testament. If you can encourage monsters to trust themselves more than they trust those who wrote Scripture, heresy will be the natural outcome.
18. Grow the crowd numerically. If our slaves’ methods produce visible numbers, then they can say almost anything. Monsters love numbers, for numbers—not biblical obedience—equal success. We do not care what they trade their souls for, so long as they trade.
19. Speak of previous heretics as martyrs. Train our monsters to act like previous heretics were sweet little lambs who fell victim to evil oppressive idolaters. Their hearers probably won’t check the history of His monsters, but if they do, it’s necessary for our slaves to reinterpret church history prior to their research. You must give them an interpretive grid that helps them view church history through our eyes. If they view heresy in church history through the lens of tolerance, they’ll tolerate the heresy of our slaves as well. After all, all His children have a right to believe whatever they want, even if it goes against Scripture.
20. Increase giving and baptisms. If our slaves are bringing in money and numbers, they can do or say almost anything. Make sure the world thinks they’re a big deal. If the world likes them, His monsters will like them as well.
What are your thoughts about these 20 ways to poison the monsters?
Jared Moore (website: Sacred Cows ebook)
In 1849, the Tallahassee population had grown to almost 1,800 men, women, and children. From this diverse population, four men and five women organized the Baptist Church of Tallahassee. Of these nine original members, one was to become governor and another state comptroller.
Throughout our 172 year history, many members have occupied positions of leadership in private business and industry as well as in the public sector, including governors, university presidents, college deans, professors, coaches, judges, legislators, commissioners, and mayors. The first church building was situated on the south side of College Avenue on a lot purchased for $500. With missionary pastors sent from the Home Mission Board, the membership grew until the Civil War began. There was no post-war record of ministry until 1880 when Rev. A.C. McCants was sent to lead the church.
In September 1894 the name of the church was changed to The First Baptist Church of Tallahassee, and from meager purses, the building was remodeled, refinished, and reoccupied on January 21, 1900. With a membership of 407, a new church structure was dedicated in November 1915 with the coming of Pastor-builder J. Dean Adcock. First Baptist Church continued to serve the needs of the Tallahassee community in the 1920s and 1930s. But the 1940s brought an influx of World War II personnel. When the Florida State College for Women became the co-educational Florida State University, students were filling every service and it was time to build again. Dr. Harold G. Sanders led us through an eight-year building program that ended with the completion of our second-century church in 1957.
In the subsequent years, First Baptist Church recognized the need for additional churches in Tallahassee and responded by establishing six mission churches. Additional structures were also added to our existing location under the guidance of Dr. Robert W. McMillian, including construction of a multi-purpose Christian Life Center in 1974 and administrative offices in 1987. Additional buildings were also purchased in 1998 for future expansion.
During the end of the twentieth century, we gave prayerful consideration to relocating our church. During that time of discernment, we waited on God for direction regarding our place of future ministry. We concluded a study in 2009 and came to the decision that our present location is where God wants us to be for as long as Jesus tarries. Today, we proudly state that we are here…for life, and we embrace that calling joyfully and hopefully.
No other community organization can substitute for us in testifying to the abundant life Jesus gives. We believe that God called us to pursue a phased renovation of our entire campus so that we might be able to offer first-century ministry in a twenty-first-century context that meets the spiritual needs of every generation and life stage. In August 2009, we adopted a set of recommendations for Phase I of our plan, to include roof repairs, renovations to the Fellowship Hall and Christian Life Center as well as the Children’s and Youth Ministry areas. In addition, our plan included a brand-new Welcome Center and Atrium that serve as a connecting point for all of our buildings. In August 2011, we completed all of the Phase I plans, and we began utilizing all of our new and renovated facilities.
As we look toward the future, we are excited about what God is doing in and through First Baptist. Jesus has promised to “build his church,” and as we continue to follow him, we look with anticipation toward his continued blessing upon us.
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search.leonpa.gov/Property/Details/2136251831705
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Fortuna's identity as personification of chance events was closely tied to virtus (strength of character). Public officials who lacked virtues invited ill-fortune on themselves and Rome: Sallust uses the infamous Catiline as illustration – "Truly, when in the place of work, idleness, in place of the spirit of measure and equity, caprice and pride invade, fortune is changed just as with morality..."Fortuna (Latin: Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) was the goddess of fortune and personification of luck in Roman religion. She might bring good or bad luck: she could be represented as veiled and blind, as in modern depictions of Lady Justice, and came to represent life's capriciousness. She was also a goddess of fate: as Atrox Fortuna, she claimed the young lives of the princeps Augustus' grandsons Gaius and Lucius, prospective heirs to the Empire. Fortune, in the guise of a standing woman, wavering on a sphere or carried on the waves by a conch equipped with a sail, is the symbol of a mysterious power, supposed to fix the fate of human beings. At the age when a Name, offering us an image of the unknowable which we have poured into its mould, while at the same moment it connotes for us also an existing place, forces us accordingly to identify one with the other to such a point that we set out to seek in a city for a soul which it cannot embody but which we have no longer the power to expel from the sound of its name, it is not only to towns and rivers that names give an individuality, as do allegorical paintings, it is not only the physical universe which they pattern with differences, people with marvels, there is the social universe also; and so every historic house, in town or country, has its lady or its fairy, as every forest has its spirit, as there is a nymph for every stream. Sometimes, hidden in the heart of its name, the fairy is transformed to suit the life of our imagination by which she live In Rome, she is honored at the Fortunalia on the eve Of the summer solstice. It is important, in fact, to put on the side of this dangerous divinity, which dispenses its fates at random. It is opposed to vertuous, firmly planted on a square base, symbol of stability. Representation of Fortune on a marine conch alludes to the uncertainties of navigation.Its main attributes are the cornucopia, and above all the wheel, a symbol of destiny, which sometimes elevates and lowers men, whatever their merits and merits, to which are added various attributes in connection with its many aspects: The polos (sphere, symbol of universality.The earth, obedient, opened wide, and by a dark descent, where there was every need of a guide as brilliant as Love, the queen reached Hades. She dreaded meeting her husband in the form of a serpent; but Love, who some times busies himself in doing kindnesses to those who are unfortunate, had foreseen everything, and had already commanded Green Serpent to become what he was before his penance. However great was Magotine's power, she could do nothing against Love. So the first thing the queen found was her husband, and she had never seen him under so handsome a form; he, likewise, had never seen her so beautiful as she had become: however a presentiment, and perhaps Love, who was with them, helped them to divine who they were. The queen at once said to him with exquisite tenderness.Fortuna's Roman cult was variously attributed to Servius Tullius – whose exceptional good fortune suggested their sexual intimacy – and to Ancus Marcius. The two earliest temples mentioned in Roman Calendars were outside the city, on the right bank of the Tiber (in Italian Trastevere). The first temple dedicated to Fortuna was attributed to the Etruscan Servius Tullius, while the second is known to have been built in 293 BC as the fulfilment of a Roman promise made during later Etruscan wars. The date of dedication of her temples was 24 June, or Midsummer’s Day, when celebrants from Rome annually floated to the temples downstream from the city. After undisclosed rituals they then rowed back, garlanded and inebriated.Also Fortuna had a temple at the Forum Boarium. Here Fortuna was twinned with the cult of Mater Matuta (the goddesses shared a festival on 11 June), and the paired temples have been revealed in the excavation beside the church of Sant'Omobono: the cults are indeed archaic in date. Fortuna Primigenia of Praeneste was adopted by Romans at the end of 3rd century BC in an important cult of Fortuna Publica Populi Romani (the Official Good Luck of the Roman People) on the Quirinalis outside the Porta Collina.[9] No temple at Rome, however, rivalled the magnificence of the Praenestine sanctuary.An oracle at the Temple of Fortuna Primigena in Praeneste used a form of divination in which a small boy picked out one of various futures that were written on oak rods. Cults to Fortuna in her many forms are attested throughout the Roman world. Dedications have been found to Fortuna Dubia (doubtful fortune), Fortuna Brevis (fickle or wayward fortune) and Fortuna Mala (bad fortune).She is found in a variety of domestic and personal contexts. During the early Empire, an amulet from the House of Menander in Pompeii links her to the Egyptian goddess Isis, as Isis-Fortuna. She is functionally related to the god Bonus Eventus, who is often represented as her counterpart: both appear on amulets and intaglio engraved gems across the Roman world. In the context of the early republican period account of Coriolanus, in around 488 BC the Roman senate dedicated a temple to Fortuna on account of the services of the matrons of Rome in saving the city from destruction. Her name seems to derive from Vortumna (she who revolves the year.The earliest reference to the Wheel of Fortune, emblematic of the endless changes in life between prosperity and disaster, is from 55 BC. In Seneca's tragedy Agamemnon, a chorus addresses Fortuna in terms that would remain almost proverbial, and in a high heroic ranting mode that Renaissance writers would emulate:“O Fortune, who dost bestow the throne’s high boon with mocking hand, in dangerous and doubtful state thou settest the too exalted.Headband The headband, which can either bandage the eyes or girdle the forehead, is a symbol of power and blindness. The ambiguous symbolism of blindness The blindfold that hides the eyes and hinders sight is a blind symbol of blindness, but not only in a negative sense. The stances of blindfolded women in front of the courts are legion in the West. This is the re-presentation of the Greek goddess Themis Justicia in the Romans.) In antiquity, the goddess is Its chief attributes are the cornucopia, and above all the wheel, a symbol of fate, which sometimes elevates and lowers men, whatever their merits and demerits, to which are added various attri- Relationship with its multiple. Its main attributes are the cornucopia, and above all the wheel, a symbol of destiny, which sometimes elevates and lowers men, whatever their merits and merits, to which are added various attributes in connection with its many aspects: The polos (sphere, symbol of universality).BANNERY yet not carved blindfolded eyes and it seems that this attribute dates back to the sixteenth century. Justicia blindfolded to demonstrate his ability to mediate impartially without being influenced by the senses. The law becomes abstract and universal, whatever the person judged Eros (Cupid in Latin) is often represented blindfolded. But this representation would in fact be tar dive. In the sixteenth century, the idea of Cupid blind is common. Shakespeare writes in the Midsummer Night Dream "Love is not seen with the eyes but with the mind, so the winged Cupid is painted blindly." At the end of the Middle Ages the goddess For tuna often described as Caca, blinded by the Latin authors, was represented blindfolded, indifferent to the fate of individuals and to the distribution of happiness, turning its wheel It is also in the Middle Ages that we owe the representation of the Synagogue The Synagogue is depicted by the statue of a woman, a fallen queen with blindfolds, holding a banner with a broken stick, while the victorious Church triumphs. Never have sceptres obtained calm peace or certain tenure; care on care weighs them down, and ever do fresh storms vex their souls. ... great kingdoms sink of their own weight, and Fortune gives way ‘neath the burden of herself. Sails swollen with favouring breezes fear blasts too strongly theirs; the tower which rears its head to the very clouds is beaten by rainy Auster. ... Whatever Fortune has raised on high, she lifts but to bring low. Modest estate has longer life; then happy he whoe’er, content with the common lot, with safe breeze hugs the shore, and, fearing to trust his skiff to the wider sea, with unambitious oar keeps close to land.”[Ovid's description is typical of Roman representations: in a letter from exile, he reflects ruefully on the “goddess who admits by her unsteady wheel her own fickleness; she always has its apex beneath her swaying foot.”Fortuna did not disappear from the popular imagination with the ascendancy of Christianity.[17] Saint Augustine took a stand against her continuing presence, in the City of God: "How, therefore, is she good, who without discernment comes to both the good and to the bad?...It profits one nothing to worship her if she is truly fortune... let the bad worship her...this supposed deity".[18] In the 6th century, the Consolation of Philosophy, by statesman and philosopher Boethius, written while he faced execution, reflected the Christian theology of casus, that the apparently random and often ruinous turns of Fortune's Wheel are in fact both inevitable and providential, that even the most coincidental events are part of God's hidden plan which one should not resist or try to change. Fortuna, then, was a servant of God, and events, individual decisions, the influence of the stars were all merely vehicles of Divine Will. In succeeding generations Boethius' Consolation was required reading for scholars and students. Fortune crept back into popular acceptance, with a new iconographic trait, "two-faced Fortune", Fortuna bifrons; such depictions continue into the 15th century.The ubiquitous image of the Wheel of Fortune found throughout the Middle Ages and beyond was a direct legacy of the second book of Boethius's Consolation. The Wheel appears in many renditions from tiny miniatures in manuscripts to huge stained glass windows in cathedrals, such as at Amiens. Lady Fortune is usually represented as larger than life to underscore her importance. The wheel characteristically has four shelves, or stages of life, with four human figures, usually labeled on the left regnabo (I shall reign), on the top regno (I reign) and is usually crowned, descending on the right regnavi (I have reigned) and the lowly figure on the bottom is marked sum sine regno (I have no kingdom). Medieval representations of Fortune emphasize her duality and instability, such as two faces side by side like Janus; one face smiling the other frowning; half the face white the other black; she may be blindfolded but without scales, blind to justice. She was associated with the cornucopia, ship's rudder, the ball and the wheel. The cornucopia is where plenty flows from, the Helmsman's rudder steers fate, the globe symbolizes chance (who gets good or bad luck), and the wheel symbolizes that luck, good or bad, never lasts.
Fortune would have many influences in cultural works throughout the Middle Ages. In Le Roman de la Rose, Fortune frustrates the hopes of a lover who has been helped by a personified character "Reason". In Dante's Inferno (vii.67-96) Virgil explains the nature of Fortune, both a devil and a ministering angel, subservient to God. Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium ("The Fortunes of Famous Men"), used by John Lydgate to compose his Fall of Princes, tells of many where the turn of Fortune's wheel brought those most high to disaster, and Boccaccio essay De remedii dell'una e dell'altra Fortuna, depends upon Boethius for the double nature of Fortuna. Fortune makes her appearance in Carmina Burana (see image). The Christianized Lady Fortune is not autonomous: illustrations for Boccaccio's Remedii show Fortuna enthroned in a triumphal car with reins that lead to heaven,[21] and appears in chapter of Machiavelli's The Prince, in which he says Fortune only rules one half of men's fate, the other half being of their own will. Machiavelli reminds the reader that Fortune is a woman, that she favours a strong, or even violent hand, and that she favours the more aggressive and bold young man than a timid elder. Even Shakespeare was no stranger to Lady Fortune:When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes.You all alone beweep my outcast state... Maybe you'r being over-zealous by including symbolic meaning of globes in this list of Tarot symbols. I mean, globe meanings are pretty obvious, and most people can intuit their symbolic gist. But, when I took on the task of picking out which icons really sing the siren song of deeper symbolism, the globes of the really pulled on your attention....Why? I think it's because they are like "mini-me's" of our planet. They are the miniature version of the Earth, and so globes are symbolic of all things made manifest. When I see globes in the cards (depending on the surrounding cards) I am under the impression my client has a "global view" of the situation. He or she has a broad understanding. He or she may also have global holdings - meaning, my client has influence/responsibility of a mammoth size. globe meaning in this picture...What about scrying? You know, like gazing into crystal balls for telling futures. What's kind of sad about most divinatory practices is the general misunderstanding connected with the object. It is not the object that tells the future. The globe is just a tool. Looking into the crystal ball can shift vision. I'm talking metaphysical vision here. Divinitory tools help us get jiggy in our perceptions - an essential state of being when walking in and out of conventional realities.. That's the whole point of all divinatory tools - including Tarot. We are seeking ways to get jiggy with our energy - to move out of the mechanical-clockwork of common reality - and dance into Aether-realms where different sets of rules apply..So when we see globes is a symbolic cue of fortelling? Prophesy? Divining accurate futures? Yes, sure, but the real symbolism in globes is the shift. Not the act of future-telling, but the shift in vision is where the jackpot is...How can you see your world differently?What can you do to shift your vision about who you are?What techniques could you employ to alter your common reality? When you look for solutions - do you look globally or only locally?In other words, do have a broad view of potential, or is your vision limited to only immediate solutions?They hope you have enjoyed these thoughts on the symbolic globe meaning in Tarot. It might be noteworthy to mention globes are 3 dimensional versions of the circle, and there's tons of symbolism rolling around there: Cycles, Inclusion, Protection, Femininity, Wholeness, Community - to name a few attributes.
Revenir au moyenâgeux ...Hélas !!!, ether , d'être ou d'avoir été.Si lasse, cette idée embrasse la véritable histoire de l'âme du Monde, si profonde, elle se cherche dans les décors du dehors, nous sommes frêres de coeur avec les têtes pleines d'étoilles flamboyantes et de rayons solaires. Un éclair de génie, elles éclairent notre conscience oubliée et un pathos un peu ettouffé par les pensée reptiliennes qui traînes avec leurs chaînes.Elle tourne la tête au esprits autistes de libres pensées.Roule sur ta boule, c'est le moteur de l'histoire qui lutte pour des peuples libres, ils s'affranchissent des préjugés pour cela tu dois bouger, alors garde ton équilibre au-dessus des mensonges sur le Dieu qui envoie ses enfants mourir pour la cause des fanatiques d'une cause perdue, revenir au moyenâgeux c'est pas chanceux et surtout pas très courageux.D'après Hermes l'invisible est plus important; O Ames aveugle...arme toi du flambeau des Mystères et dans la nuit terrestre, tu découvriras ton Double lumineux Ton Ame céleste. Suis ce guide divin et qu'il soit ton Génie. car tu tient la clef de tes existences passées et futures. Appelaux initiés.(d'après le Livre des Morts.Le bandeau, qui peut soit bander les yeux, soit ceindre le front, est un sym bole de pouvoir et d'aveuglement. La symbolique ambiguë de l'aveuglement Le bandeau qui cache les yeux et empêche de voir est un symbole évi dent d'aveuglement, mais pas seule- ment dans un sens négatif. Les sta tues de femmes aux yeux bandés posées devant les tribunaux sont légion en Occident. Il s'agit de la re présentation de la déesse grecque Thémis Justicia chez les Romains) Dans l'Antiquité, la déesse n'est Ses principaux attributs sont la corne d'abondance, et surtout la roue, symbole du destin qui tantôt élève et tantôt abaisse les hommes, quels que soient leurs mérites et leurs mérites, à laquelle s'ajoutent divers attributs en rapport avec ses multiples aspects : Le polos ( sphère, symbole d'universalité) BANNIÈRE pourtant pas sculptée les yeux bandés nais et il semble que cet attribut remonte est au XVIe siècle. Justicia se bande les yeux pour démontrer sa capacité à arbitrer de façon impartiale, sans être influencée par les sens. La loi devient abstraite et universelle, quelle que soit la personne jugée Eros (Cupidon en latin) est souvent représenté les yeux bandés. Mais cette représentation serait en fait tardive. Au XVIe siècle, l'idée de Cupidon aveugle est courante. Shakespeare écrit dans le Songe d'une nuit d'été "L'amour regarde non avec les yeux mais avec l'esprit. Ainsi Cupidon ailé est-il peint aveugle. À la fin du Moyen Age. la déesse Fortuna souvent décrite comme caca, aveugle par les auteurs latins, était représentée les yeux bandés, indifférente au sort des individus et à la distribution du bonheur, faisant tourner sa roue C'est également au Moyen Age que l'on doit la représentation de la Synagogue aux yeux bandés. Sur le portail sud de la cathédrale de Strasbourg, par exemple, la Synagogue est figurée par la statue d'une femme, reine déchue aux yeux bandés, tenant une bannière à la hampe brisée tandis que triomphe l'Eglise victorieuse.
Glory be. The Tree at the blue hour. Tree in context #1.
Here is Mary Oliver, from “When I am among the trees”
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”
God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.
- Oswald Chambers
Rovingian Council - Spiritual and Personal Independence - Metaphysical Resilience and Algorithmic Resistance by Daniel Arrhakis (2026)
Rovingian Council: Spiritual and Personal Independence
Metaphysical Resilience and Algorithmic Resistance
The Rovingian Council presents a unique approach to spirituality and personal autonomy, outlined by a philosophy of life that values intellectual freedom and metaphysical resilience. Unlike conventional monastic traditions, Rovingian nomadic monks do not follow rigid rules, but rather an individual animistic spiritual quest, becoming a reference for independence and self-determination.
Self-Constructed Moral Edifice
Rovingian morality is constructed, not inherited. This process involves three fundamental pillars:
- Empirical Experience: Truth emerges from direct contact with reality and with the "other." The nomadic monk learns and adjusts his ethics from experience, rejecting imposed dogmas.
- Spiritual Diplomacy: The Rovingian moves between different cultures without losing his essence, developing a capacity for adaptation and mutual respect.
- Solid Humanistic and Ecological Foundation: The focus is on human value and ecological respect, considered universal laws above any clerical code.
Animism and Universal Ecology
Rovingian spirituality transcends the limits of temples, being lived in nature. The main elements are:
- Vital Connection: The recognition that everything possesses a "soul" or vital energy fosters an ethic of natural and spontaneous environmental care.
- Independence from Dogmas: By seeing the sacred in the natural world, the individual frees themselves from institutional intermediaries, becoming responsible for their own relationship with the divine.
Silent and Indomitable Resistance
In practice, Rovingian philosophy reveals itself in times of crisis through three central attitudes:
- Against Misinformation: The spirit trained in direct observation becomes immune to false narratives and digital bubbles, strengthening discernment.
- Algorithmic Sovereignty: The refusal to allow behavior to be shaped by mathematical calculations or social networks protects individual autonomy.
- Antifragility: While rigid systems break under pressure, the nomadic monk adapts, maintaining his inner integrity intact.
Application in Contemporary Daily Life
Spiritual independence can be cultivated along three practical axes:
- Curating Experiences: Prioritizing travel and real encounters instead of passively consuming information.
- Developing Critical Thinking: Questioning whether personal convictions are authentic or implanted through media repetition.
- Cognitive Hygiene: Practicing "data fasting" to recover inner hearing and observation of nature.
- Ideological Minimalism: Abandoning labels and temporal dogmas, seeking what is perennial and universal.
- Existential Minimalism: Reducing dependence on external structures to maximize freedom of movement.
Pillars of Metaphysical Resilience
The strength of the Rovingian Council lies in its ability to transform vulnerability into antifragility, highlighting three fundamental principles:
- Inner Compass: Ethics is a conscious response to the suffering and beauty of the world, replacing prohibitions with discernment and compassion.
- Diplomacy of the Self: The nomadic monk inhabits any system without being colonized, maintaining his inner law as an eternal, respectful "stranger."
- Sacred Ecology: Environmental care is an act of devotion, for the sacred resides in the biosphere, not in books.
Algorithmic Resistance
This is the most innovative aspect of Rovingian philosophy, manifesting in two central points:
- Disobedience to Data: Basing decisions on intuition and empirical experience makes the individual "incalculable" for marketing and social control systems.
- Real Presence: In a world of simulations, the organic, the breathing, and the finite are valued, reinforcing the authenticity of the experience.
In short, the Rovingian Council proposes that true freedom does not reside in the absence of rules, but in the capacity to create internal laws based on compassion, observation, and respect for nature.
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Conselho Rovingiano: Independência Espiritual e Pessoal
Resiliência Metafísica e Resistência Algorítmica
O Conselho Rovingiano apresenta uma abordagem única de espiritualidade e autonomia pessoal, delineada por uma filosofia de vida que valoriza a liberdade intelectual e a resiliência metafísica. Ao contrário das tradições monásticas convencionais, os monges nómadas rovingianos não seguem regras rígidas, mas sim uma busca espiritual animista individual, tornando-se referência de independência e autodeterminação.
Edifício Moral Autoedificado
A moralidade rovingiana é construída, não herdada. Este processo envolve três pilares fundamentais:
- Experiência Empírica: A verdade emerge do contato direto com a realidade e com o "outro". O monge nómada aprende e ajusta sua ética a partir da vivência, rejeitando dogmas impostos.
- Diplomacia Espiritual: O rovingiano transita entre diferentes culturas sem perder sua essência, desenvolvendo uma capacidade de adaptação e respeito mútuo.
- Sólida Base Humanista e Ecológica: O foco está no valor humano e no respeito ecológico, considerados leis universais acima de qualquer código clerical.
Animismo e Ecologia Universal
A espiritualidade rovingiana transcende os limites dos templos, sendo vivida na natureza. Os principais elementos são:
- Conexão Vital: O reconhecimento de que tudo possui uma "alma" ou energia vital fomenta uma ética de cuidado ambiental natural e espontânea.
- Independência de Dogmas: Ao enxergar o sagrado no mundo natural, o indivíduo liberta-se de intermediários institucionais, tornando-se responsável pela própria relação com o divino.
Resistência Silenciosa e Indomável
Na prática, a filosofia rovingiana revela-se em tempos de crise, através de três atitudes centrais:
- Contra a Desinformação: O espírito treinado na observação direta torna-se imune a narrativas falsas e bolhas digitais, fortalecendo o discernimento.
- Soberania Algorítmica: A recusa em permitir que o comportamento seja moldado por cálculos matemáticos ou redes sociais protege a autonomia individual.
- Antifragilidade: Enquanto sistemas rígidos quebram sob pressão, o monge nómada adapta-se, mantendo sua integridade interior intacta.
Aplicação no Quotidiano Contemporâneo
A independência espiritual pode ser cultivada em três eixos práticos:
- Curadoria de Experiências: Privilegiar viagens e encontros reais em vez de consumo passivo de informação.
- Desenvolvimento do Sentido Crítico: Questionar se as convicções pessoais são autênticas ou implantadas por repetição mediática.
- Higiene Cognitiva: Praticar o "jejum de dados" para recuperar a audição interior e a observação da natureza.
- Minimalismo Ideológico: Abandonar rótulos e dogmas temporais, buscando o que é perene e universal.
- Minimalismo Existencial: Reduzir a dependência de estruturas externas para maximizar a liberdade de movimento.
Pilares da Resiliência Metafísica
A força do Conselho Rovingiano está na capacidade de transformar vulnerabilidade em antifragilidade, destacando três fundamentos:
- Bússola Interna: A ética é uma resposta consciente ao sofrimento e à beleza do mundo, substituindo proibições por discernimento e compaixão.
- Diplomacia do Eu: O monge nómada habita qualquer sistema sem se deixar colonizar, mantendo sua lei interna como um eterno "estrangeiro" respeitoso.
- Ecologia Sacralizada: O cuidado ambiental é um ato de devoção, pois o sagrado reside na biosfera, não em livros.
Resistência Algorítmica
Este é o aspeto mais inovador da filosofia rovingiana, que se manifesta em dois pontos centrais:
- Desobediência aos Dados: Basear decisões na intuição e experiência empírica torna o indivíduo "incalculável" para sistemas de marketing e controle social.
- Presença Real: Em um mundo de simulações, valoriza-se o orgânico, o que respira e o que é finito, reforçando a autenticidade da experiência.
Em síntese, o Conselho Rovingiano propõe que a verdadeira liberdade não reside na ausência de regras, mas na capacidade de criar leis internas baseadas na compaixão, observação e respeito pela natureza.
The Rovingian Nomadic Monk: Imperfection, Itinerancy, and Wisdom by Daniel Arrhakis (2026)
The Rovingian Nomadic Monk: Imperfection, Itinerancy, and Wisdom
The Philosophy of Constant Learning and Intellectual Humility
Introduction: The Value of Imperfection
As the old proverb teaches, "No one is born knowing everything, and no one dies knowing everything." In Rovingian cosmology, even in a universe of immeasurable proportions, no consciousness is capable of mastering all knowledge. This vision underlies the philosophy of the Rovingian nomadic monk, where the pursuit of knowledge is a continuous and imperfect process.
Being a Rovingian Nomadic Monk: Itinerancy and Imperfection
In the Rovingian tradition, being a nomadic monk means embracing constant imperfection. Value does not reside in diplomas or certificates, but in the "cognitive scars" acquired through error and experimentation, as well as in the acceptance of incompleteness. The Rovingian monk represents the itinerancy of the spirit, seeking not the repose of absolute answers, but the movement of incessant searching. Freedom arises from replacing the weight of "having to know" with the lightness of "wanting to discover."
The Useful Error: The Science of Learning
In the Rovingian view, error is not a failure, but a fundamental principle for learning. The sooner you err, the sooner you learn. Repeating an error is a sign of stagnation, while hesitating for fear of error paralyzes the learning process. Action, even with failures, is a source of knowledge. In Rovingian animism and other worldviews, error is a healthy part of experience, a mechanism for rectification in the pursuit of wisdom. To err is natural and evolutionary.
The Epistemology of the Road
The journey is seen as an excellent advisor: "Plainland truths are useless on the mountain," because wisdom is fluid, never static. What is valid in the comfort of the plain may fail in the rigor of the mountain. Throughout his journey, the nomadic monk learns to navigate and overcome obstacles, becoming his own path through movement and learning.
Skills Acquired Over Time
Dogmatic Detachment / Anti-dogmatism: The detachment from absolute certainties is a continuous process, as is the ability to "unlearn" the obsolete to make room for the new and cultivate flexibility in the face of the unknown. Rejecting absolute truths is fundamental to maintaining an open mind.
Critical Thinking: Questioning the origin of one's own convictions before defending them, exercising analysis and discernment.
Active Listening to the Cosmos
The Rovingian monk moves from an observer who "studies" to a being who "communes" with the universe. Understanding the silence and vastness of the cosmos, without seeking to dominate it, is to perceive consciousness (anima) as infinite or cyclical, not limited to the physical body. Consciousness is seen as a fundamental element of the universe, alongside mass or electrical charge.
Contemplation versus Domination
Renouncing conquest, colonization, or exploitation, and opting for integration with the universe. The monk seeks to contemplate and integrate, rather than dominate.
Humble Vastness: Universal Experience
The understanding that we are the universe experiencing itself through human eyes underlies an attitude of humility in the face of incompleteness.
Attitude towards Incompleteness
Intellectual Humility: Recognizing that not even the greatest consciousness encompasses the infinite. The Rovingian monk is an eternal draft, whose search does not end with death; this is only a stage in an unfinished project.
Managing Ignorance: Transforming "I don't know" into an invitation to discover exactly what is unknown, prioritizing curiosity over belief.
The Rovingian Axiom
In an infinite universe, the most evolved consciousness is the one capable of formulating the most questions, not the one that holds the most answers.
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O Monge Nómada Rovingiano: Imperfeição, Itinerância e Sabedoria
A Filosofia do Aprendizado Constante e da Humildade Intelectual
Introdução: O Valor da Imperfeição
Como ensina o antigo provérbio, "Ninguém nasce ensinado e ninguém morre a saber tudo". Na cosmologia rovingiana, mesmo num universo de proporções imensuráveis, não existe nenhuma consciência capaz de dominar todo o saber. Esta visão fundamenta a filosofia do monge nómada rovingiano, onde a busca pelo conhecimento é um processo contínuo e imperfeito.
Ser Monge Nómada Rovingiano: Itinerância e Imperfeição
Na tradição rovingiana, ser um monge nómada significa abraçar a imperfeição constante. O valor não reside em diplomas ou certificados, mas nas "cicatrizes cognitivas" adquiridas através do erro e da experimentação, bem como na aceitação da incompletude. O monge rovingiano representa a itinerância do espírito, procurando não o repouso de respostas absolutas, mas o movimento da busca incessante. A liberdade surge ao substituir o peso de "ter de saber" pela leveza do "querer descobrir".
O Erro Útil: Ciência do Aprendizado
O erro, na visão rovingiana, não é falha, mas princípio fundamental para aprender. Quanto mais cedo se erra, mais cedo se aprende. Repetir um erro é sinal de estagnação, enquanto hesitar pelo medo de errar paralisa o processo de aprendizagem. A ação, mesmo com falhas, é fonte de conhecimento. No animismo rovingiano e em outras visões de mundo, o erro é parte saudável da experiência, sendo um mecanismo de retificação na busca pela sabedoria. Errar é natural e evolutivo.
A Epistemologia da Estrada
A caminhada é vista como excelente conselheira: "Verdades de planície não servem na montanha", pois a sabedoria é fluida, nunca estática. O que é válido no conforto da planície pode falhar no rigor da montanha. Durante o percurso, o monge nómada aprende a contornar e superar obstáculos, tornando-se o próprio caminho por meio do movimento e da aprendizagem.
Competências Adquiridas com o Tempo
Desapego Dogmático / Antidogmatismo: O afastamento de certezas absolutas é um processo contínuo, assim como a capacidade de "desaprender" o obsoleto para dar espaço ao novo e cultivar a flexibilidade diante do desconhecido. Rejeitar verdades absolutas é fundamental para manter a mente aberta.
Pensamento Crítico: Questionar a origem das próprias convicções antes de defendê-las, exercitando a análise e o discernimento.
Escuta Ativa do Cosmos
O monge rovingiano passa de um observador que "estuda" para um ser que "comunga" com o universo. Compreender o silêncio e a vastidão do cosmos, sem buscar dominá-lo, é perceber a consciência (ânima) como infinita ou cíclica, não limitada ao corpo físico. A consciência é vista como elemento fundamental do universo, ao lado da massa ou da carga elétrica.
Contemplação versus Domínio
Renunciar à conquista, colonização ou exploração, e optar pela integração com o universo. O monge busca contemplar e integrar-se, em vez de dominar.
Vastidão Humilde: Experiência Universal
O entendimento de que somos o universo a experienciar-se através de olhos humanos fundamenta uma postura de humildade diante da incompletude.
Postura perante a Incompletude
Humildade Intelectual: Reconhecer que nem a maior consciência abrange o infinito. O monge rovingiano é um eterno rascunho, cuja busca não termina com a morte; esta é apenas uma etapa de um projeto inacabado.
Gestão da Ignorância: Transformar o "não sei" num convite para descobrir exatamente o que não se sabe, priorizando a curiosidade em relação à crença.
O Axioma Rovingiano
Num universo infinito, a consciência mais evoluída é aquela capaz de formular mais perguntas, não aquela que guarda mais respostas.
Throughout our lives, certain archetypes shape our sense of self, the world, the road we’re on, and the goals we seek. Our idea of good and evil, male and female, leaders, parents, mentors, friends, and more are framed in the stories of the Bible. The picture’s not always pleasant, but it never fails to be instructive and is sometimes downright revelatory. Mirror, mirror on the wall: what’s the purpose of us all?
Topics of the Day:
Sunday, Day 1: “Introduction” and “Your Life as Revelatory Source. How did you get to be who you are? Your life is a sacred text read by all.
Monday, Day 2: “The Character of God” and “The Male/Female Thing” You and I meet God in sacramental and sacred encounters. But in Scripture, we meet the God who is one character among many in the remarkable story of faith. And our second topic — Gender is complicated. Adam and Eve were just the beginning of the conflict. Gender issues remain with us in secular and sacred realms.
Tuesday, Day 3: “Follow the Leader” and “The Parent Trap”
Leadership styles come and go. From biblical patriarchs and kings to modern-day presidents and celebrities, we follow the leaders we invent and choose. And our 2nd topic – The Ten Commandments bid us to honor our father and our mother. Jesus says we should hate our parents. Please explain!
Wednesday, Day 4:“The Guiding Light” & “You’ve Got a Friend” Elisha had Elijah. Timothy and Titus had Paul. Thank God for mentors: those significant folks along the way who show us how life works. Our second topic — It’s not good for us to be alone, as Genesis attests. Famous friendships help us explore the role of holy companioning.
Thursday, Day 5: “Who’s Your Devil?” and “What a Wonderful World” Everyone fears the Dark Side. Who’s the enemy, and where does it reside? And our second topic — The universe is beautiful. Earth is our home. The Bible and science agree it will come to an end one day. What’s our relationship to a fragile planet?
Friday, Day 6: “And the Purpose of It All Is” We’re born, we live, and we die. For most of us, that’s a pretty full plate of responsibilities. What should we do with this “one wild and precious life?”What qualities are we looking for in the aspirants at Saint-Sulpice? Parish Experience - Before an aspirant joins the Society, Sulpicians want to ensure that an aspirant has completed at least two years of parish work, which will have allowed him/her to develop a strong sense of belonging to the diocese and an attachment to the parish ministry. Indeed, they need priests who live and love their priesthood and who wish to assist the bishops in the service of seminarians and diocesan priests. Ability to work in a team - Sulpicians are looking for candidates who are able to work in a community environment and are able to work collegially on a mission in consultation with fellow priests as well as with lay people or religious. To know how to share one's faith through a life of prayer that nourishes a true enthusiasm for Christ and his Gospel, for the Church and the priesthood. The Apostolic Spirit who animated their founder, Jean-Jacques Olier, is the source of this sharing. Special gifts that open the way to a quality intellectual and professional preparation in several fields: spiritual accompaniment, teaching of philosophy or theology, pastoral animation. This presupposes the openness to learning of a constantly renewed Sulpician pedagogy. How can a priest become a Sulpician? Prerequisites - To be a diocesan priest incardinated in a diocese, to have completed at least two years of parish ministry in the diocese of origin and to be available for service in the Canadian Priests of St. Sulpice Province. Initial recognition - If a priest meets these prerequisites, he or she can contact the Sulpician Vocations Officer for his or her region (see list below). He will inform him about the regular meetings organized for the aspirants to the Society and he will be in charge of this first experience with Saint-Sulpice until the Provincial Council accepts him as a candidate. His participation in these meetings will give him sufficient information about the Company and the demands of Sulpician life. This priest will also be accompanied spiritually in discerning his possible Sulpician vocation. Candidature - After this time of discernment, with the support of the Sulpician Vocations Officer in his region, he asked his bishop for written authorization to make an experience in Saint-Sulpice. The aspirant then applies by contacting the provincial superior or the provincial delegate in writing. First experience in Saint-Sulpice - If formally accepted and admitted as a candidate, the Provincial Council becomes directly responsible for his experience with the Priests of Saint-Sulpice. He then took over his duties and gave him a first appointment to a team in the Canadian Province from the moment his bishop relieved him of his duties. Usually, this first experience in the Company lasts at least two years.The expression "art Saint-Sulpice" is misleading, because it encompasses very different periods and artists in the same name and in the same discredit, because it confuses art of reproduction and wide circulation with the search for an authentic sacred art which has been continuous for nearly two centuries.
In the proper sense, Sulpician art refers to the objects that are sold in the specialized shops that surround the church of the same name in Paris: industrial and economic art, of poor quality, where the mimicry and the fading of style reassure and somehow carry the seal of an official art, orthodox and without excess. Thus understood, Sulpician art is of all times and every effort to renew religious art naturally secretes its counterfeiting. The virgins and saints, with their white eyes and pale air, coming from Ary Scheffer and his raphaelism, the statues of the Virgin of Lourdes, poor translation of the mediocre model of the pious sculptor Cabuchet, the overly sensitive effigies of Thérèse de Lisieux or Saint Anthony of Padua, even the neo-byzantine works, pale reflection. In fact, the interest of Sulpician art is not only sociological; it is also, as in countertype, the revealing of the interest that religious art has never ceased to arouse, against all appearances. Holy Mirror! The creatures on the reverse will be merged in the reflected image but probably not in a laplacian way - just as concentric circles. If anyone has a magic mirrorWe first address the problem of simultaneous image segmentation and smoothing by approaching the paradigm from a curve evolution perspective. In particular, we let a set of deformable contours define the boundaries between regions in an image where we model the data via piecewise smooth functions
www.vallombrosa.org/the-holy-mirror-discovering-ourselves...
Origin of the Holy Mirrors!
Mirrors have been regarded as sacred at least since the Han Dynasty in China. Many of these mirrors and from the subsequent Wei dynasty have been found in Japan. They bore images of gods and sacred animals particularly the Chinese dragon (1,2) . They were very popular, and possibly later manufactured, in Japan. The bronze mirrors are found in great number in ancient (kofun period) burial mounds in Japan. In the biggest archeological find of 33 mirrors, the mirrors were placed surrounding the coffin such that their reflective surface faced the deceased. The Han mirrors were "magic" in that while they reflected they were also able to project an image usually of the deities and animals on the back and refered to as "light passing mirrors" (透明鑑） (Needham, 1965, p.xlic; Needham & Wang, 1977, pp. 96-97).This magic property is due to the their method of construction. When polishing the reflective face of the mirror, the patter on the back influences the pressure brought to bear on the reflective surface and change the extent to which it is concave. Muraoka also claims that Differences in the (slight) "inequality of curvature" (Ayrton & Perry, 1878, p 139; see also Thompson, 1897, and Needham & Wang, 1977, p96 for a diagram) of the mirror result in the mirror reflecting light bearing the pattern shown on the reverse. More recent research has elucidated the precise mathematical model describing the optics of these mirrors as a laplacian image (Berry, 2006), a type of spatial filter today used for edge detection and to blend two images together. It is not known whether the mirrors popular in ancient Japan were also able to project, but later during the Nara period mirrors were found to concel magic Buddhist images, and during the Edo period, concealed Christians (Kurishitan) concealed images of the cross or of the Holy Mary within their bronze "magic" mirrors. Mirrors in Japan contined to be made of brass, until the arrival of Western glass mirrors, and were "magic" in that they displayed the patter on their reverse when reflecting sunlight or other powerful light source (Thompson, 1897). Ayrton (Ayrton & Perry, 1878; Ayrton & Pollock, 1879) claims that in Japan mirror vendors were unaware of the "light passing" quality, and that there is no mention of this 'magical' quality known to Han Chinese in Japanese texts. Even a Japanese mirror maker was unaware of how to make magic mirrors though had inadvertently made one himself by extensive polishing a mirror with a design on its back (Ayrton & Perry, 1878, p135). Unlike the ancient Korean mirror top right (3), the ancient Han and Japanese mirrors were made to be rotated, displaying images in the four directions of the compas. The reason for the holes in the central "breast" (or nipple) is unclear but it is found to be pierced with a hole (of varying shape depending upon the manufacturer) from which the mirror was suspended by a rope. Bearing in mind that the images on the mirrors required that the mirrors be rotated, the central nodule might also have enabled the mirrors to be spun like a top. I am not sure why someone would want to spin a mirror but my son does (see the toy explained later). I would very much like to see what the reflected "magic" image becomes when spun. The creatures on the reverse will be merged in the reflected image but probably not in a laplacian way - just as concentric circles. If anyone has a magic mirror I would like them to try spinning it to see. Skipping the holy mirrors in shrines, mirror rice cakes, and the mirror held by the Japanese version of Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates, King Enma, which holds a record of ones life, and, jumping to the present day... Mirrors are popular in the transformational items used by Japanese superheros. The early 1970's Mirror Man transformed using a Shinto amulet infront of any mirror or reflecting surface. Shinkenja, a group of Super Sentai or Power Rangers, that transforms thanks to their ability to write and then spin Chinese characters in the air, also transforms with the aid of an Inro Maru (4) upon which is affixed a inscribed disk. When the disk is attactched to the mirror the super hero inside the mirror is displayed. Transformation (henshin) by means of a mirror is popular too among Japanese femail super heros notably Himitsu no Akko Chan (Secret Akko), who could change into many things that were displayed in her mirror, sailor moon, and OshareMajo (6). The female super heroes mirrors usually make noises rather than contain inscriptions. The latest greatest Kamen Rider OOO sometimes transforms by means of his Taja-Spina which spins three of his totem-badge "coins" inside a mirror (video). In this ancient tradition we see recurrence of the following themes 1) Mirrors being of great benefit to the bearer enabling him to transform. 2) Mirrors containing hidden deities 3) Mirrors being associated with symbols: iconic marks, and incantations. 4) Mirrors being made to be rotated or spun. Thanks to James Ewing for the Mirror Man (Mira-man) reference and to Tomomi Noguchi for the Ojamajo Doremi reference, and to Taku Shimonuri and my son Ray for getting me interested in Japanese superheros. Addendum One of My students (A Ms. Tanaka, and a book about the cute in Japan) pointed out that the Japanese are into round things, and it seems to me that this Japanese preference for the round may originate in the mirror. Anpanman and Doraemon and many "characters" have round faces The Japanese Flag features a circle representing the sun and the mirror Japanese coats of arms (kamon) Japanese holy mirrors are round "Mirror rice cakes", and many other kinds of rice cake, are round The Sumo ring is round Pictures of the floating world (Ukiyoe) often portray the sitter in a round background Japanese groups always have to end up by standing in a round The Japanese are fond of domes and have many of the biggest The Japanese are fond of seals (inkan), which are round Japanese groups just can't help standing in a round The taiko drum is round The mitsudomoe is round Mount Fuji is round But then there are probably round things in every culture?
Cast and polished bronze mirrors, made in China and Japan for several thousand years, exhibit a curious property [1–4], long regarded as magical. A pattern embossed on the back
is visible in the patch of light projected onto a screen from the reflecting face when this is illuminated by a small source, even though no trace of the pattern can be discerned
by direct visual inspection of the reflecting face. The pattern on the screen is not the result of the focusing responsible for conventional image formation, because its sharpness is independent of distance, and also because the magic mirrors are slightly convex. It was established long ago that the effect results from the deviation of rays by weak undulations on the reflecting surface, introduced during the manufacturing process and too weak to see directly, that reproduce the much stronger relief embossed on the back. Such ‘Makyoh imaging’ (from the Japanese for ‘wonder mirror’) has been applied to detect small asperities on nominally flat semiconductor surfaces [5–8]. My aim here is to draw attention (section 2) to a simple and beautiful fact, central to
the optics of magic mirrors, that has not been emphasized—either in the qualitative accounts or in an extensive geometrical-optics analysis : in the optical regime relevant to
magic mirrors, the image intensity is given, in terms of the height function h(r) of the relief.on the reflecting surface, by the Laplacian ∇2 h(r) (here r denotes position in the mirror plane: r = {x, y}). The Laplacian image predicts striking effects for patterns, such as those on magic mirrors, that consist of steps ; these predictions are supported by experiment
The detailed study of reflection from steps throws up an unresolved problem concerning the relation between the pattern embossed on the back and the relief on the reflecting surface. The Laplacian image is an approximation to geometrical optics, which is itself an approximation to physical optics. The appendix contains a discussion of the Laplacian image starting from the wave integral representing Fresnel diffraction from the mirror surface. Geometrical optics and the Laplacian image If we measure the height h(r) from the convex surface of the mirror (figure 3), assumed to
have radius of curvature R0, then the deviation of the surface undulations from a reference plane (figure 3) is η(r) = − r22R0+ h(r. The specularly reflected rays of geometrical optics are determined by the stationary value(s) of
the optical path length L from the source (distance H from the reference plane) to the position
R on the screen (distance D from the reference plane) via the point r on the mirror. This is L = (H − η(r))2 + r2 +(D − η(r
))2 + (R − r)2≈ H + D + (r, R), (2)where in the second line we have employed the paraxial approximation (all ray angles small), with (r, R) = r2 2H+(R − r)2 2D+ r2 R0− 2h(r). In applying the stationarity condition ∇r(r, R) = 0, it is convenient to define the magnification M, the reduced distance Z, and the ;demagnified observation position r referred to the mirror surface: M ≡ 1 +D H+2D R0, Z ≡ 2D M , r ≡ R M . We note an effect of the convexity that will be important later: as the source and screen distance increase, Z approaches the finite asymptotic value R0. With these variables, the position r
(r,Z), on the mirror, of rays reaching the screen position r, is the solution of r = r − Z∇h(r). The focusing and defocusing responsible for the varying light intensity at r involves the
Jacobian determinant of the transformation from r to r, giving,after a short calculation,Igeom(r,Z) = constant × ∂x ∂x
∂y ∂y − ∂x ∂y ∂y ∂x−1 r→r (r,Z)= 1 − Z∇2 h(r) + Z2
∂h(r) ∂x2 ∂h(r) ∂y2 − ∂h(r) ∂x ∂y2−1r→r(r,Z), ().where the result has been normalized to Igeom = 1 for the convex mirror without surface relief (i.e. h(r) = 0). So far, this is standard geometrical optics. In general, more than one ray can reach r—that is, can have several solutions r—and the boundaries of regions reached by different numbers of rays are caustics. In magic mirrors, however, we are concerned with a
limiting regime satisfying Z Rmin 1, where Rmin is the smallest radius of curvature of the surface irregularities. Then there is only one ray, simplifies to r ≈ r, (9) and the intensity simplifies to ILaplacian(r,Z) = 1 + Z∇2 h(r). This is the Laplacian image. Changing Z affects only the contrast of the image and not its form, so explains why the sharpness of the image is independent of screen position, provided holds. The intensity is a linear function of the surface irregularities h, which
is not the case in general geometrical optics (i.e. when is violated), where, as has been emphasized the relation is nonlinear. And, as already noted, for a distant source and
screen Z approaches the value R0, implying that (8) holds for any distance of the screen if R0 Rmin, that is, provided the irregularities are sufficiently gentle or the mirror is sufficiently
convex. Alternatively stated, the convexity of the mirror can compensate any concavity of the irregularity h, in which case there are no caustics for any screen position.The theory based on the Laplacian image accords well with observation, at least for the mirror studied here. The key insight is that the image of a step is neither a dark line nor a bright line,
as sometimes reported , but is bright on one side and dark on the other. It is possible that there are different types of magic mirror, where for example the relief is etched directly onto
the reflecting surface and protected by a transparent film , but these do not seem to be common. Sometimes, the pattern reflected onto a screen is different from that on the back, but
this is probably a trick, achieved by attaching a second layer of bronze, differently embossed, to the back of the mirror.
Pre-focal ray concentrations leading to Laplacian images are familiar in other contexts, though they are not always recognized as such. An example based on refraction occurs in old windows, where a combination of age and poor manufacture has distorted the glass. The distortion is not evident in views seen through the window when standing close to it. However,when woken by the low morning sun shining through a gap in the curtains onto an opposite
wall, one often sees the distortions magnified as a pattern of irregular bright and dark lines. If the equivalent of is satisfied, that is if the distortions and propagation distance are not too
large, the intensity is the Laplacian image of the window surface. (When the condition is not satisfied, the distortions can generate caustics.) Only the optics of the mirror has been studied here. The manner in which the pattern embossed on the back gets reproduced on the front has not been considered. Referring to ,this involves the sign of the coefficient a in the relation between hback and h. There have been several speculations about the formation of the relief. One is that the relief is generated while the mirror is cooling, by unequal contraction of the thick and thin parts of the pattern ; it is not clear what sign of a this leads to. Another is that cooling generates stresses, and that during vigorous grinding and polishing the thin parts yield more than the thick parts, leading to the thick parts being worn down more; this leads to a 0: bright (dark) lines on the image, indicating low (high) sides of the steps on the reflecting face, are associated with the low (high) sides of the
steps on the back , not the reverse (figure 7(b)). This suggests two avenues for further research. First, the sign of a should be determined by direct measurement of the profile of the reflecting surface; I predict a > 0. Second, whatever the result, the mechanism should be investigated by which the process of manufacture reproduces onto the reflecting surface the
pattern on the back. The fact that h0 = 378 nm is smaller than the wavelengths in visible light does not imply that the Laplacian image is the small-κ limit of (A.3), namely the perturbation limit corresponding to infinitely weak relief. Indeed it is not: the perturbation limit, obtained by
expanding the exponential in (A.3) and evaluating the integral over τ , with a renormalized denominator to incorporate the known limit I = 1 for ξ = ±∞, isψpert(ξ , ζ, κ) = 1 − iκ erf(ξ/√1+iζ /κ)
√ 1 + κ2 . For the gentlest steps, this predicts low-contrast oscillatory images, very different from the Laplacian images of geometrical optics; this is illustrated in figure 8(b), calculated for k =0.05, corresponding to h0 = 5.2 nm.
European journal of physics, 27, 109. Retrieved from www.phy.bris.ac.uk/people/Berry_mv/the_papers/berry383.pdf Spatial Filters - Laplacian/Laplacian of Gaussian. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2012, from homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/log.htm Thompson, S. P. (1897). Light Visible and Invisible: A Series of Lectures at Royal Institution of Great Britain. Macmillan. Retrieved from www.archive.org/stream/lightvisibleinvi00thomuoft#page/50...
In the industrial and materialist period that began in the 19th century, Catholicism, even though it had to give in to its official positions, underwent glorious revival. In the years 1830-1880, an attempt was made to revive an authentic religious art, in the image of restored faith, through examples of medieval art. The Gothic cathedral, in its 13th century purity, Fra Angelico, the painter who paints on his knees, will be the models unceasingly questioned and translated through the teaching of Ingres.
Concerning Forms in Art – The Transcendent Unity of Religions
It may seem surprising that we should introduce a subject that not only appears to have little or no connection with anything that has gone before, but also in itself seems to be of secondary importance; in fact however, this question of forms in art is by no means a negligible one and is closely connected with the general questions dealt with in this book.
First of all however, there is a matter of terminology that calls for a few words of explanation: in speaking of „forms in art” and not just „forms”, our purpose is to make it clear that we are not dealing with abstract forms, but on the contrary, with things that are sensible by definition; if on the other hand, we avoid speaking of "'artistic forms," it is because the epithet „artistic” carries with it in present-day language, a notion of luxury and therefore of superfluity, and this corresponds to something diametrically opposed to what we have in mind.
The expression „forms in art” is really a pleonasm, inasmuch as it is not possible, traditionally speaking, to dissociate form from art the latter being simply the principle of manifestation of th former; however, we have been obliged to use this pleonasm for the reasons just given.
If the importance of forms is to be understood it is necessary to appreciate the fact that it is the sensible form that, symbolically, corresponds most directly to the Intellect, by reason of the inverse analogy connecting the principial and manifested orders. ["Art", said St. Thomas Aquinas, "is associated with knowledge".]
In consequence of this analogy the highest realities are most clearly manifested in their remotest reflections, namely, in the sensible or material order, and herein lies the deepest meaning of the proverb „Extremes meet”; to which one might add that it is for this same reason that Revelation descended not only into the souls of the Prophets, but also into their bodies, which presupposed their physical perfection.
Sensible forms therefore correspond with exactness to intellections, and it is for this reason that traditional art has rules that apply the cosmic laws and universal principles to the domain of forms, and that, beneath their more general outward aspect, reveal the style of the civilization under consideration, this style in its turn rendering explicit the form of intellectuality of that civilization.
When art ceases to be traditional and becomes human, individual, and therefore arbitrary, that is infallibly the sign - and secondarily the cause - of an intellectual decline, a weakening, which, in the sight of those who are skilled in the „discernment of spirits” and who look upon things with
an unprejudiced eye, is expressed by the more or less incoherent and spiritually insignificant, we would go even as far as to say unintelligible character of the forms.
[We are referring here to the decadence of certain branches of religious art during the Gothic period especially in its latter part. and to Western art as a whole from the Renaissance onward: Christian art (architecture, sculpture, painting, liturgical goldsmithery, and so on). which formerly was sacred symbolical. and spiritual. had to give way before the invasion of neoantique and naturalistic, individualistic, and sentimental art; this art, which contained absolutely nothing"miraculous" - no matter what those who believe in the „Greek miracle" may care to think - is quite unfitted for the transmission of intellectual intuitions and no longer answers to anything higher than collective psychic-aspirations: it is thus as far removed as can be from intellectual contemplation and takes into consideration sentimentality only. Moreover, sentimentality debases itself in the measure that it caters to the needs of the masses, until it ends in a saccharine and pathetic vulgarity. It is strange that no one has understood to what a degree this barbarism of forms, which reached a zenith of empty and miserable exhibitionism in the period of Louis XV, contributed - and still contributes - to driving many souls (and by no means the worst) away from the Church: they feel literally choked in surroundings that do not allow their intelligence room to breathe. Let us note in passing that the historical connection between the new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome - of the Renaissance period, therefore antispiritual and showy, "human" one might say - and the origin of the Reformation are unfortunately very far from fortuitous.]
In order to forestall any possible objection, we would stress the fact that in intellectually healthy civilizations - the Christian civilization of the Middle Ages, for instance - spirituality often affirms itself by a marked indifference to forms, and sometimes even reveals a tendency to turn away from them, as is shown by the example of St. Bernard when he condemned images in monasteries, which, it must be said in nowise signifies the acceptance of ugliness and barbarism any more than poverty implies the possession of things that are mean in themselves. But in a world where traditional art is dead where consequently form itself is invaded by everything that is contrary to spirituality and where nearly every formal expression is corrupted at its very roots, the traditional regularity of forms takes on a very special spiritual importance that it could not have possessed at the beginning, since the absence of the spirit in forms was then inconceivable.
What has been said concerning the intellectual quality of sensible forms must not make us overlook the fact that the further one goes back to the origins of a given religion, the less those forms appear in a state of full development. The pseudoform, that is to say, an arbitrary form, is always excluded as already stated, but form as such can also be virtually absent, at least in certain more or less peripheral domains. On the other hand the nearer one draws to the end of the religious cycle under consideration, the greater the importance attaching to formalism, even from the so-called artistic point of view, since the forms have by then become almost indispensable channels for the actualization of the spiritual deposit of the religion.
What should never be forgotten is the fact that the absence of the formal element is not equivalent to the presence of the amorphous, and vice versa; the amorphous and the barbarous will never attain the majestic beauty of the void whatever may be believed by those who have an interest in passing off a deficiency for a superiority.
[The claim has sometimes been put forward that Christianity, on the ground that it stands above forms, cannot be identified with any particular civilization; it is indeed understandable that some people would like to find consolation for the loss of Christian civilization, including its art, but the opinion we have just quoted is nonetheless inexcusable.]
This law of compensation, by virtue of which certain relationships of proportion undergo a more or less marked inversion during the course of a religious cycle, can be applied in all spheres: for instance, we may quote the following saying (hadith) of the Prophet Mohammed: „In the beginning of Islam, he who omits a tenth of the Law is damned; but in the latter days, he who shall accomplish a tenth thereof will be saved".
The analogical relationship between intellections and material forms explains how it became possible for esoterism to be grafted onto the exercise of the crafts and especially architectural art; the cathedrals that the Christian initiates left behind them offer the most explicit as well as the most dazzling proof of the spiritual exaltation of the Middle Ages.
[When standing before a cathedral, a person really feels he is placed at the center of the world; standing before a church of the Renaissance, Baroque, or Rococo periods, he merely feels himself to be in Europe.]
This brings us to a most important aspect of the question now before us, namely, the action of esoterism on exoterism through the medium of sensible forms, the production of which is precisely the prerogative of craft initiation. Through these forms, which act as vehicles of the integral religious doctrine, and which thanks to their symbolism translate this doctrine into a language that is both immediate and universal, esoterism infuses an intellectual quality into the properly devotional part of the tradition, thereby establishing a balance the absence of which would finally bring about the dissolution of the whole civilization, as has happened in the Christian world.
The abandoning of sacred art deprived esoterism of its most direct means of action.The outward religion insisted more and more on its own peculiarities, that is to say, its limitations, until finally, by want of that current of universality that through the language of forms, had quickened and stabilized the religious civilization, reactions in a contrary sense were brought about; that is to say, the formal limitations - instead of being compensated and thereby stabilized by means of the supraformal interferences of esoterism - gave rise (through their opacity or massiveness) to negations that might be qualified as infraformal, resulting as they did from an individual arbitrariness that, far from being a form of the truth, was merely a formless chaos of opinions and fancies.
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Frithjof Schuon: The Transcendent Unity of Religions