Isaac
Isaac[a] is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in which he is the son of Abraham and Sarah, the father of Jacob and Esau, and the grandfather of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Isaac's name means "he will laugh", reflecting the laughter, in disbelief, of Abraham and Sarah, when told by God that they would have a child.[1][2] He is the only patriarch whose name was not changed, and the only one who did not move out of Canaan.[2] According to the narrative, he died aged 180, the longest-lived of the three patriarchs.[2]
Etymology
The anglicized name "Isaac" is a transliteration of the Hebrew name יִצְחָק (Yīṣḥāq) which literally means "He laughs/will laugh". Ugaritic texts dating from the 13th century BCE refer to the benevolent smile of the Canaanite deity El.[3] Genesis ascribes the laughter to Isaac's parents, Abraham and Sarah, instead. According to the biblical narrative, Abraham fell on his face and laughed when God (Hebrew, Elohim) imparted the news of their son's eventual birth. He laughed because Sarah was past the age of childbearing; both she and Abraham were advanced in age. Later, when Sarah overheard three messengers of the Lord renew the promise, she laughed inwardly for the same reason. Sarah denied laughing when God questioned Abraham about it.[1][4][5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac
Seinfeld Apartment Fridge Magnets Pack
https://www.amazon.com/Seinfeld-Apartment-Fridge-Magnets-Pack/dp/B083GD37B5
Seinfeld (SYNE-feld) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of 180 episodes. Its ensemble cast stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and focuses on his personal life with three of his friends: best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), former girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and neighbor from across the hall, Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld
Superman was born on the fictional planet Krypton with the birth name of Kal-El. As a baby, his parents Jor-El and Lara sent him to Earth in a small spaceship shortly before Krypton was destroyed in a natural cataclysm. His ship landed in the American countryside near the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas. He was found and adopted by farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent, who named him Clark Kent. Clark began developing superhuman abilities, such as incredible strength and impervious skin. His adoptive parents advised him to use his powers to benefit of humanity, and he decided to fight crime as a vigilante. To protect his personal life, he changes into a colorful costume and uses the alias "Superman" when fighting crime. Clark resides in the fictional American city of Metropolis, where he works as a journalist for the Daily Planet. Superman's supporting characters include his love interest and fellow journalist Lois Lane, Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen, and editor-in-chief Perry White, and his enemies include Brainiac, General Zod, and archenemy Lex Luthor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman
Clark is an English language surname with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland,[2] ultimately derived from the Latin clericus meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educated. Clark evolved from "clerk". First records of the name are found in 12th-century England. The name has many variants.[3]
Clark is the twenty-seventh most common surname in the United Kingdom,[1] including placing fourteenth in Scotland.[4] Clark is also an occasional given name, as in the case of Clark Gable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark
Kent
southeasternmost county of England, Old English Cent, Cent lond, Centrice, from Latin Cantia, Canticum (Caesar), Greek Kantion (Strabo, 51 B.C.E.), from an ancient British Celtic name often explained as "coastal district," or "corner-land, land on the edge," but possibly "land of the hosts or armies." Related: Kentish (Old English Centisc).
https://www.etymonline.com/word/Kent
Lois is a common English name from the New Testament. Paul the Apostle mentions Lois, the pious grandmother of Saint Timothy in the Second Epistle to Timothy (commending her for her faith in 2 Timothy 1:5). The name was first used by English Christians after the Protestant Reformation, and it was popular, particularly in North America, during the first half of the 20th century.
As male name
In French, Loïs is a male name, as in the fictional comic strip adventures of Loïs Lorcey by Jacques Martin.[citation needed]
The name Loïs is derived from the name Louis, itself derived from Clovis which is derived from the Germanic root, Hlodowig, which can be interpreted in the sense of "glorious" or "illustrious fighter". Close names include Louys, Luis, Louis, Lorys, Lucio, Leonus, Louniss, Lyes, Clovis, Ludovic, Ludwig, Lovis, and Luigi.[citation needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois
comedy (n.)
late 14c., "narrative with a happy ending; any composition intended for amusement," from Old French comedie (14c.), "a poem" (not in the theatrical sense) and directly from Latin comoedia, from Greek kōmōidia "a comedy, amusing spectacle," probably [Beekes] from kōmōidos "actor or singer in the revels," from kōmos "revel, carousal, merry-making, festival" + aoidos "singer, poet," from aeidein "to sing," which is related to ōidē (see ode).
https://www.etymonline.com/word/comedy
The Divine Comedy (Italian: Divina Commedia [diˈviːna komˈmɛːdja]) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature[1] and one of the greatest works of Western literature. The poem's imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval worldview as it existed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language.[2] It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
The poem discusses "the state of the soul after death and presents an image of divine justice meted out as due punishment or reward",[3] and describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Allegorically, the poem represents the soul's journey towards God, beginning with the recognition and rejection of sin (Inferno), followed by the penitent Christian life (Purgatorio), which is then followed by the soul's ascent to God (Paradiso). Dante draws on medieval Catholic theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy derived from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas.
In the poem, the pilgrim Dante is accompanied by three guides: Virgil, who represents human reason, and who guides him for all of Inferno and most of Purgatorio; Beatrice, who represents divine revelation[4] in addition to theology, grace, and faith; and guides him from the end of Purgatorio onwards; and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who represents contemplative mysticism and devotion to Mary the Mother, guiding him in the final cantos of Paradiso.
The work was originally simply titled Comedìa (pronounced [komeˈdiːa], Tuscan for "Comedy") – so also in the first printed edition, published in 1472 – later adjusted to the modern Italian Commedia. The adjective Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio,[5] owing to its subject matter and lofty style, and the first edition to name the poem Divina Comedia in the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce,[6] published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, that started in 1947, two years after the end of World War II, and lasted until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported opposing sides in major regional conflicts, known as proxy wars.
The Cold War was based on an ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their roles as the Allies of World War II that led to victory against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945.[1] Aside from the nuclear arms race and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed indirectly, such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, sports diplomacy, and technological competitions like the Space Race. The Cold War began with the announcement of the Truman Doctrine in 1947, started a gradual winding down with the Sino-Soviet split between the Soviets and the People's Republic of China in 1961, and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Western Bloc was led by the United States, as well as a number of First World nations that were generally capitalist and liberal democratic but tied to a network of often authoritarian Third World states, most of which were the European powers' former colonies.[2][3] The Eastern Bloc was led by the Soviet Union and its communist party, which had an influence across the Second World and was also tied to a network of authoritarian states. The Soviet Union had a command economy and installed similarly communist regimes in its satellite states. United States involvement in regime change during the Cold War included support for anti-communist and right-wing dictatorships, governments, and uprisings across the world, while Soviet involvement in regime change included the funding of left-wing parties, wars of independence, revolutions and dictatorships around the world. As nearly all the colonial states underwent decolonization and achieved independence in the period from 1945 to 1960, many became Third World battlefields in the Cold War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War
Preface
Much new material on the Rosicrucians has emerged in recent years. The publishing conditions for the first Rosicrucian manifestoes have been studied in detail and the origin of these writings in Tubingen and Cassel has been set beyond doubt. With this emphasis on local events in Southern Germany it has become increasingly evident that it is time to construct a general perspective of the movement that supplants Frances Yates controversial statement The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (1973). The way to do so is to study the various Rosicrucian replies as they emerged in their local settings. In this book I do this for the Baltic area. I investigate the millenarian aspects of Rosicrucianism as it emerges from a reading of Johannes Bureus’ papers. This material has been little known due to the reticence of researchers to publish on Bureus as a Rosicrucian. When Bureus’ favourite idea, that of The Lion of the North, was studied by Johan Nordstrom in the 1930s, it was readily seen that it could be associated with the Nazi myth of the Nordic Superman. Confronted by the negative role of national myths, Nordstrom abandoned the project of making a synthesis of the Paracelsian and Hermetic material found in Swedish archives. In 1942, Nordstrom’s student Sten Lindroth published on Bureus as a Paracelsian but kept the references to the Lion of the North at a minimum. I show that the Paracelsian myth of the Lion of the North was an essential ingredient in the political use of the Rosicrucian writings.
Introduction
Rosicrucianism is a theosophy advanced by an invisible order of spiritual knights who in spreading Christian Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Gnosis seek to enliven and to preserve the memory of Divine Wisdom, understood as a feminine flame of love called Sofia or Shekhinah, exoterically given as a fresh unfolded rose, yet, more akin to the blue fire of alchemy, the blue virgin. Rosicrucians have no organisation and there are no recognizable Rosicrucian individuals, but the order makes its presence known by leaving behind engrammatic writings in the genre of Hermetic-Platonic Christianity.1 The historical roots of Hermeticism is to be located in Ancient Egypt. Long before the rise of Christianity, Hermetic texts were structured around the belief that organisms contain sparks of a Divine mind unto which they each strive to attend. Things easily transform into others, thereby generating certain cyclical patterns, cycles that periodically renew themselves on a cosmic scale. These transformations of life and death were enacted in the Hermetic Mysteries in Ancient Egypt through the gods Isis, Horus, and Osiris. In the Alexandrian period these myths were reshaped into Hermetic discourses on the transformations of the self with Thot, the scribal god. These discourses were introduced in the west in 1474 when Marsilio Ficino translated the Hermetic Pimander from the Greek. The story of Christian Rosencreutz can be seen as a new version of these mysteries, specifically tempered by German Paracelsian philosophy on the Lion of the darkest night, a biblical icon for how the higher self lies slumbering in consciousness.2 In this book, I develop the Rosicrucian theme from a Scandinavian perspective by linking selected historical events to scenarios of the emergence of European Rosicrucianism that have been advanced from other geographic angles. The Rosicrucian texts can be divided into three distinct epochs. In its first historical phase from about 1610 to 1620, Rosicrucianism emerged as a mixture of popular eschatology and Paracelsian ideas that seemed to hold the promise of a fundamental change in Protestant culture, a fundamental social change to be sure, that never fully materialized. At the same dme, early Rosicrucianism was characterized by resistance to the Counter- Reformation, urged on by the anonymous Rosicrucian writings and their call for a gathering of the reformers. The first pamphlet was published with a satirical text on Apollo and the seven wise men, being the seventy-seventh chapter of Trojano Boccalini’s The General Reformation of the Whole Wide World. The call for reform was shrouded in reverence for Christian Rosencreutz, the German knight who had travelled in the Orient and whose grave from 1484 was described in the first Rosicrucian tract Fama Fratemitatis Roseae Crucis, published in 1614 at Kassel and adressed to all learned and to the governors of Europe. In a second phase, 1620-1660, Rosicrucianism was exploited to justify certain political causes; most notably, the Rosicrucian idea of a society of invisible agents in possession of higher spiritual knowledge was absorbed into the clandestine cause for restoring the Stuarts to the British throne.3 In a third major phase, 1710-1740, Rosicrucian ideas were revived in aristocratic circles to reinforce a somewhat different aim: to form a select spiritual elite in Europe through higher-grade Masonic initiation. As a self-contained fiction, Rosicrucianism offers the belief in a secret society that controls the ascent of the soul to the Divine essence through a carefully crafted hierarchy of insights, each level opening to some higher initiatory process of instruction. How this belief was placed in the society of the Enlightenment through Masonic and para-Masonic channels during the first half of the eighteenth century is, however, a quite different story from how Rosicrucianism actually took root in Germany during the first decades of the seventeenth century. While the first phase of Rosicrucianism was formed by radical Paracelsians, the second phase was right-wing, aristocratic, and restorationist. Nevertheless, activists of both phases shared the Rosicrucian belief in the potential for personal development, the belief that there are ways to expand the soul in new and passionate directions. Rosicrucians see themselves as charged with a desire to attain the higher self, as ready to unfold their humanity, ready to bloom out as manifold spiritual microcosms of the greater world. In a process that remains obscure, central Rosicrucian ideas on Divine Sovereignty gradually transformed into a ritualized enactment of personal awakening as Rosicrucian texts were taken up on the one hand by early British Freemasons (Robert Moray, George Erskine, Elias Ashmole) and on the other hand by German Pietists (Samuel Richter, Herman Fictuld, F. C. Oetinger), later to find resonance in the philosophical writings of Herder and Hegel.4 My own path to Rosicrucian studies has been one of historical research. I first became involved in these studies in 1988 while I was doing research in the archives of the Bibliotheca Vaticana. I had come across a 1660 reference to a group of alchemists in Rome who claimed that they belonged to a clandestine sect, “una compagnia intitolata della Rosa Croce o come altri dicono dell’ Aurea Croce.”5 They proclaimed that their wisdom had been brought to the West in 1182 by an Italian knight, Morieno Romanus, in the form of an Arabic dialogue on alchemy with Rex Calid in Constantinople. This cherished dialogue, I was soon to discover, describes the precious process of preparing the alchemical tincture. Rex Calid explained this process as only the covering of a spiritual message; very simply put, that the philosopher’s stone is within us. Calid, however, was Khalid ibn Yazid, the Ummayad prince who died in the year 704 C.E., and who ordered a group of Greek philosophers living in Egypt to translate texts about the art of alchemy from the Greek and Coptic languages into Arabic. Romanus was the contemporary student of Stephanos the Byzantine and Adfar Alexandrinus; the dialogue itself had been translated into Latin in 1144 by Robert of Chester.
My surprise at finding this information flowed from other reasons altogether, however. There was something strange and unexpected transmitted by these Vatican documents that did not depend on their alchemical content. The original Rosicrucians are often considered to have died out by 1623 and then only to have been revived rhetorically for political reasons among British monarchists preparing the restoration of the Stuarts to the English throne in 1660. Here was an Italian group that pledged themselves as Rosicrucians in an epoch where no such fraternities were thought to exist, especially not south of the Alps. Even more puzzling, how could ideas that had been formulated with clear anti-papal intentions be accepted by Catholics? And why was there no reference to the original German knight, “Christian Rosencreutz”? There had been one or two Catholic replies to the Rosicrucians before 1620, but these were generally dimissive. Why then were these sectarians of the Rosy and Golden Cross connected to the circle of poets around the ex-Queen Christina of Sweden in Rome, one of the most infamous Catholic converts ever to have entered the Eternal City? I recalled that one thinker who had figured in the background of her court at Stockholm—the Runic scholar Johannes Bureus (1568-1652)— had written some Rosicrucian pamphlets in 1616 in answer to the original call of the first Rosicrucian text, the Fama Fratemitatis. Bureus was a renowned teacher of Queen Christina’s father Gustav Adolf and moved in the court of Queen Christina, and yet there were doubts about whether he had any real influence on either one of them. This picture clarified when I read the final redaction of Bureus’ manuscript Adulruna Redimva, given as a gift to Christina in 1643. This unique text combines a Runic theosophy with Gothic history and is of a distinctly mystical kind. A first version was given to Gustav Adolf on his assumption to the Swedish throne in 1611. From now on my research took new form. I saw a continuous development in Bureus’ texts from his early Rosicrucian writings to the final production of this remarkable monarchical manual. I noticed that Bureus had begun to draft his system in 1605, and that he had applied John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica to his construction of a Runic Cross in 1610.6 These early ideas have a clear Rosicrucian tinge, but I realized that it would be very early for Bureus to know anything of the movement that is believed to have first emerged in 1610- 1614. I then found a letter sent in 1605 by a German mystic to the Swedish King Carl IX, a letter that displays some signs similar to Rosicrucian symbolism. The evidence in this letter is enough to change the picture of the whole movement. A series of new leads from Bureus’ notes pointed to a new perspective on the prehistory of Rosicrucianism, namely to its origins in Simon Studion’s millenarian group cruce signata of 1586. Studion offered a reading of Reformation events as part of an elaborate apocalyptic dram a and made special reference to the Teutonic O rder and to Huguenot politics in France after the treacherous St. Bartholomew massacre in 1572. Studion’s system in turn was inspired by an astrochronology produced by the Paracelsian astronomer Helisaeus-Roeslin as part of the debate over the new star that in the same year appeared in the heavens. This dispute was generated by the French orientalist Guillaume Postel (1510-1581), a brilliant ex-Jesuit and mystic, who after his condemnation and imprisonment in Paris in 1564 spread a new system of redemption involving the notions animus and anima. Postel held that our souls are saved by an encounter with a feminine principle, the Shekhinah of the £ohar, the indwelling of lights. This doctrine he worked out after meeting what he believed was the female Messiah, the learned sister Johanna of Venice, who showed him a new reading of the Apocalypse in 1547. I had already encountered her views on the angelic pope, since my previous research had led me to see that Queen Christina of Sweden programmatically cultivated Postel’s prophecies in her attempt to style herself as the convert of the century. The special use of Roeslin’s chronology in Bureus’ FaMa e sCanzJa reDUX (s.l., 1616) even places Postel at the birth of Rosicrucianism. It should be remembered that Rosicrucianism emerged from obscurity in late eighteenth-century counter-Enlightenment circles whose advocates were fascinated by animal magnetism, somnambulism, and electricity.7 Nineteenth-century theosophists rediscovered these phenomenal powers and the occult activities of Eliphas Levi in Paris led to the founding in 1888 of “l’O rdre Cabalistique de la Rose Croix” around Stanislas de Guaita, Papus (Gerard Encausse), Paul Sedir (Yves Le Loup), and Josephin Peladan.8 Rosicrucian texts were transmitted from Paris and Berlin to London, where by 1888 the Hermetic society of the Golden Dawn established the secret inner circle “Ordo Roseae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis,” and sought to develop and refine ancient traditions of ceremonial and angelic magic. As is generally recognized, these groups had a tremendous influence on literary culture. In the summer of 1896, for example, these Parisian esoteric circles of poets, painters, and symbolists incited a crisisridden August Strindberg to perfect his experimenting with alchemy and to publish his ideas on the composition of sulphur in Papus’ journal IsInitiation. Strindberg probably already knew the Swedish Rosicrucian Johannes Bureus’ mystical writings, since he was much influenced by the Chief Director of the Royal Library in Stockholm, G. E. Klemming, who published Bureus’ diary in 1885. While still in France, at the beginning of his intense Inferno crisis, in July, 1896, Strindberg was overwhelmed by Balzac’s occult novel Seraphita. With self-tormenting doubts, he gave himself over to reading Swedenborg, the Book of Job, Isaiah 54, and the monastic mystic Thom as a Kempis. Finally, on visit to Klam in Austria, Strindberg stayed in a “rose-red room,” and with excitement he noted red ink in the inkwell and rose-coloured cigarette paper. In November, Strindberg revealed to a friend that he himself was meant in Balzac’s prophetic passage: “Once more the light will come from the north.”9
Rose Cross Over the Baltic The Spread of Rosicrucianism In Northern Europe
by Susanne Ackerman
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vWI_uTVg5lzNCDm16itq-PLSavozNR_F/view?usp=sharing
Pope meets Jimmy Fallon and 105 other comics at Vatican
By Malu Cursino, BBC News
Pope Francis has met with more than 100 comedians from across the world, including Jimmy Fallon, Chris Rock and Whoopi Goldberg, at the Vatican in Rome.
The Pope said comedians have the "power to spread serenity and smiles" in a world where people are immersed in "many social and personal emergencies".
"You unite people because laughter is contagious," he added.
The entertainers were hosted in the Vatican hours before the pontiff was expected in Puglia for the G7 summit.
During the audience with 107 comedians from 15 countries, the Pope praised their ability to make people smile.
"You can also laugh at God, of course, and that's not blasphemy," the pontiff told comedians, adding that "it can be done without offending the religious feelings of believers".
According to reports on US media, comedian Jimmy Fallon was seen larking around the front of the audience hall before proceedings got under way - he was reportedly quickly told take his seat as the pope was due to walk through the door.
Fallon was joined by other big names in the entertainment industry, including US comedian Chris Rock, Italy's Silvio Orlando, and British actor and comedian Stephen Merchant.
Comedian Whoopi Goldberg, well known for Sister Act, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, from hit-show Veep, were also in attendance.
The cultural event preceded the pope's appearance at the G7 in the southern Italian region of Puglia - the first time a leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics attends the summit of the world's seven largest advanced economies.
The 87-year-old pontiff has called for global regulation of AI, warning of its danger to ethics and human rights.
In reference to current global events, the pope told comedians that while communication today "often generates conflict," the entertainers are able to bring together diverse realities.
"How much we need to learn from you," he added.
After the audience the Pope met briefly with each comedian, exchanging a few words with each - though some interactions were somewhat one-way.
"Well it was brief, he spoke in Italian, so I'm not quite sure what was said," quipped late-night host Conan O'Brien.
"It was quick... I had a wonderful time," he added.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c722vd9274yo
The Carolingian dynasty (/ˌkærəˈlɪndʒiən/ KARR-ə-LIN-jee-ən;[1] known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD.[2] The dynasty consolidated its power in the 8th century, eventually making the offices of mayor of the palace and dux et princeps Francorum hereditary, and becoming the de facto rulers of the Franks as the real powers behind the Merovingian throne. In 751 the Merovingian dynasty which had ruled the Franks was overthrown with the consent of the Papacy and the aristocracy, and Pepin the Short, son of Martel, was crowned King of the Franks. The Carolingian dynasty reached its peak in 800 with the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Emperor of the Romans in the West in over three centuries. Nearly every monarch of France from Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious till the penultimate monarch of France Louis Philippe have been his descendants. His death in 814 began an extended period of fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire and decline that would eventually lead to the evolution of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire.
Name
The Carolingian dynasty takes its name from Carolus, the Latinised name of multiple Frankish kings including Charlemagne and Charles Martel.[3] The name originates from a common Germanic word, rendered in Old High German as Karl or Kerl,[4] meaning 'man', 'husband', or 'freeman'.[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolingian_dynasty
Carolina's Mexican Food is dedicated to making your dining experience enjoyable. Please take a moment to let us know how we are doing. It is only through your comments that we are able to continually improve.
https://www.carolinasfastfood.com/contact-us.html
Charles V[c][d] (24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558) was Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria from 1519 to 1556, King of Spain from 1516 to 1556, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy from 1506 to 1555. He was heir to and then head of the rising House of Habsburg. His dominions in Europe included the Holy Roman Empire, extending from Germany to northern Italy with rule over the Austrian hereditary lands and Burgundian Low Countries, and Spain with its possessions of the southern Italian kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia. In the Americas, he oversaw the continuation of Spanish colonization and a short-lived German colonization. The personal union of the European and American territories he ruled was the first collection of realms labelled "the empire on which the sun never sets".[9]
Charles was born in Flanders to Habsburg Archduke Philip the Handsome, son of Emperor Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy, and Joanna of Castile, younger child of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Heir of his grandparents, Charles inherited his family dominions at a young age. After his father's death in 1506, he inherited the Low Countries.[10] In 1516 he became King of Spain as co-monarch of Castile and Aragon with his mother. Spain's possessions included the Castilian colonies of the West Indies and the Spanish Main, as well as Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. At the death of his grandfather Maximilian in 1519, he inherited the Austrian hereditary lands and was elected as Holy Roman Emperor. He adopted the Imperial name of Charles V as his main title, and styled himself as a new Charlemagne.[11]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
When World War II ended, barely 100,000 European Jews survived and when they arrived in Palestine they had to obey Bolshevik edicts or starve to death. However, they weren't enough to stave off the number one threat to the Frankist state, the Arabs. The wrath of the savage tribes threatened the whole enterprise and only the infusion of large numbers of soldiers could stave off their invasion. To that end, European-controlled Arab dictators were persuaded to go against their national interests, stir up bloody anti-semitism and get the Sephardic Jews to Israel. Their first reward was wealth through seizure of Jews' assets. Before the Sabbataians introduced it, there was no such thing as Jewish selfhatred. Their religion and heritage came as naturally as breathing. This was the state the Eastern Jews were in when they were driven to Israel. There, the Frankists had to apply all the lessons they learned turning German Jews into their image to change the newcomers. Every effort was made to divest these peoples of their faith and the results were often shattering. This is one reason, for instance, why Moroccan Jews who fled to France are so much better off than their families in Israel. Initially, the American Frankists supported the new nation, believing it would soon spread darkness to the nations. But the Jews didn't cooperate and held on to their decency. That is when the CFR unleashed its evilest Frankists on the Jews once again. The most prominent of this lot is the German-born Henry Kissinger but the list is long and includes the Austrian-educated Madeleine Albright, and German descendents such as Joe Lieberman and Sandy Berger. Today, the Frankist agenda is being promoted through the thinking of the German-born American philosopher, Leo Strauss. To show you all is not what it seems, here are a few words about him from a Jewish writer for the Executive Intelligence Report, run by the Germacentric, Lyndon LaRouche:
"If Strauss' influence on politics in the capital of the most powerful nation on Earth was awesome in 1996, it is even more so today. The leading "Straussian" in the Bush Administration is Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who was trained by Strauss' alter-ego and fellow University of Chicago professor Allan Bloom. Wolfowitz leads the "war party" within the civilian bureaucracy at the Pentagon, and his own protege I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, is Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and chief national security aide, directing a super-hawkish "shadow national security council" out of the Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House. According to Bloom biographer Saul Bellow, the day that President George H.W. Bush rejected Wolfowitz and Cheney's demand that U.S. troops continue on to Baghdad, during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Wolfowitz called Bloom on his private phone line to bitterly complain. It seems that "Bush 41" was not enough of a Nietzschean "superman" for Wolfowitz's taste."
Compare that report with this one recently published by the Jerusalem Post.
LONDON- A British coroner has rejected a German police claim that a 22 year old Jewish man from London, Jeremiah Duggan, committed suicide in March after attending a meeting of the far-right Schiller Institute in the German town of Wiesbaden. The Schiller Institute draws its inspiration from American conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche, who was among the speakers at the meeting... He said, "Mum, I am in deep trouble. I am frightened." As he attempted to give his location, the line went dead."
Duggan made the fatal mistake of getting too close to the true connection between LaRouche and the Frankists. Their program calls for the brainwashing of Jews to hate themselves and they don't cotton to rebels. Here is how that is accomplished through the Israeli higher education system, as reported by Caroline Glick this week in the Jerusalem Post:
"Students speak of a regime of fear and intimidation in the classroom. Ofra Gracier, a doctoral student in Tel-Aviv University's humanities faculty explains the process as follows: 'It starts with the course syllabus. In a class on introduction to political theory for instance, you will never see the likes of Leo Strauss or Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman. You will only get Marx and Rousseau and people like that. So, if you want to argue with Marx, you are on your own. You don't know anything else.'"
The fatal error of Israeli Jews was rejecting the Frankists and their Labour Party. The Shabbataians would rather see the Arabs overrun Israel than witness the revival of a state run by true Judaism. They have thoroughly financed and infiltrated the high leadership and especially, far left groups, to prepare the ground for defeat. And if utter demoralization doesn't do the trick, read another local report issued this week:
PREPARATIONS TO USE FIREPOWER AGAINST JEWS.
Our contacts have reported that the following has been introduced by the people preparing MEGA YAMIT. IBA "B" reported, in three consecutive reports following the Geha Junction islamic mass murder assault that GERMAN EXTREME RIGHT WING Jews were those that performed the bombing. (Refer to the IBA "B" records) .
Rabbi Antelman was right. He looked at the enemy and saw the mirror opposite of real Judaism. A war to the finish is on in Israel and it is being spread to the rest of the planet. Our salvation can only arise when the Arabs realize the Jews of Israel are fighting the same battle they are and against the same enemies. If they can't overcome the brainwashing and hatred, they'll go down along with Israel. And then the rest of the planet might just follow.
FRIDAY January 9th 2004
Dear Mr Chamish,
I read with particular interest your analysis of the problems related to the Donmeh and the Shabbataians, in particular your concluding remarks in which you state that: "Our salvation can only arise when the Arabs realize the Jews of Israel are fighting the same battle (that) they are (fighting) and against the same enemies." It will perhaps come as something of a surprise to learn that there are some Muslims who agree with much contained in your assessment. As a convert to Islam (from a somewhat ecumenical family - predominantly Christian but with two converts to Judaism my sister and cousin) so yes, in the words of David Dimbleby, we now do have a long weekend. I believe that the only way out of the present state of affairs is to seek out the facts, publish, or be damned. Your piece filled in a number of important gaps which, unless you have the sort of inside information, that you obviously have, would have taken a lot more time than I currently have available to spend on this very important subject. My own observations are included in a book we published back in 1991 entitled Satanic Voices - Ancient & Modern this was a reply to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. I am in the process of extracting the relevant passages to send to you, which relate to the Donmeh and the Islamic prophecies which precisely predict the events which led to the disastrous state of affairs you describe so well, and with which we largely agree.
With best regards
Shabbat Shalom
Yours sincerely
David M Pidcock
The Islamic Party of Britain "
Shabtai Tzvi, Labor Zionism and the Holocaust
by Barry Chamish
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B66Pc9x2hkIrV2Y3QWxPbkpKYWc/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-5ak831cRNQohyyjZYfFKvw
King Charles III's coronation to feature shards of "True Cross" gifted by Pope Francis
By Haley Ott
April 21, 2023 / 4:24 AM EDT / CBS News
Pope Francis has given King Charles III two shards of wood that the Vatican says are from the "True Cross" on which Jesus Christ was crucified, to be included in the British monarch's upcoming coronation ceremony. The shards will be incorporated into a new cross that will lead the coronation procession on May 6.
The new cross, which was a gift from then-Prince Charles to the Church in Wales, a branch of the Anglican Church, to mark its centenary in 2020, has been made from reclaimed wood, recycled silver and Welsh slate, the Reuters news agency reported. The two small shards donated by Pope Francis have been shaped into a cross and incorporated behind a gemstone.
King Charles III's coronation: What to know for the centuries-old ceremony
"I can confirm that the fragments of the relic of the True Cross were donated by the Holy See in early April, through the Apostolic Nunciature, to His Majesty King Charles III, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, as an ecumenical gesture on the occasion of the centenary of the Anglican Church in Wales," the Holy See press office said Thursday.
King Charles III's coronation: What to know for the centuries-old ceremony
After the coronation, the cross will return to Wales, where it will be shared between the Anglican and Catholic churches there, Reuters reported.
"Its design speaks to our Christian faith, our heritage, our resources and our commitment to sustainability," Andrew John, the Anglican Archbishop of Wales, said, according to Reuters. "We are delighted too that its first use will be to guide their majesties into Westminster Abbey at the Coronation Service."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/king-charles-coronation-pope-francis-true-cross/
Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]
The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but did not become truly popular until the 1930s when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records.
A reduction of available racing surface and salt thickness has led to the cancellation of events at Bonneville, such as Speed Week in 2014 and 2015.[2] Available racing surface is much reduced with just 2.5 miles (4.0 km) available[2] instead of the 9-mile (14 km) courses traditionally used for Speed Week.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonneville_Speedway
In 1754, near Paris, Chevalier de Bonneville established the Chapter of Clermont. The Chapter resided in the College of Jesuits of Clermont, hence the name. It is said to have been created to honor the Duc de Clermont, then Grand Master of the English Grand Lodge of France.
The Chapter of Clermont was a “Chapter of the Advanced Degrees” and initially entailed six degrees and was later extended to 25 known degrees. The six initial degrees were 1˚, 2˚ and 3˚ St John’s Masonry, 4˚ Knight of the Eagle, 5˚ Illustrious Knight or Templar, 6˚ Sublime Illustrious Knight.
Interestingly enough historically, prior to the time of the Rite’s creation, James II had been in residence at Clermont in exile from Britain from 1688 to his death in 1701. As noted by German Masonic historian, Lenning… “whilst in exile, James II residing at the Jesuit College of Clermont in France, allowed his closest associates to fabricate certain degrees in order to extend their political views.” Lenning believed this to have been an attempt on the part of James and his associates to regain control of the British throne for the House of Stuart. If Lenning is right, this places the origins of the “Rite of Perfection” in the hands of James II and the Jacobite (Stuart) Freemasons who at the time were in exile from Great Britain throughout France and Italy. Lenning also contends that these degrees were introduced into French Freemasonry under the name of the Clermont System.
James II died in exile in 1701. His son James III is said to have continued his father’s Masonic legacy and later created further higher degrees.
Perhaps James II saw in the Jesuit morality plays of the College of Clermont a vessel for passing on a set of moral lessons. Some of the world’s greatest playwrights had emerged from Clermont. Jesuit tutelage had previously produced great writers such as Lope de Vega, Moliere, Racine, and the Corneille brothers. Ensconced in exile, I believe James II did find the inspiration and the training to help produce what would later become the first six degrees. From out of the darkness… comes light.
To be continued… (Author’s note… An in depth look at the Templar influence in Scottish Rite masonry’s origins can be found by visiting the Rosslyn Templars’ website.)"
https://web.archive.org/web/20190615041607/http://www.traversecityscottishrite.com/scottish-rite-history.html
The Caliphate of Córdoba (Arabic: خلافة قرطبة, romanized: Khilāfat Qurṭuba), also known as the Córdoban Caliphate, was an Arab Islamic state ruled by the Umayyad dynasty from 929 to 1031. Its territory comprised Iberia and parts of North Africa, with its capital in Córdoba. It succeeded the Emirate of Córdoba upon the self-proclamation of Umayyad emir Abd ar-Rahman III as caliph in January 929.[3] The period was characterized by an expansion of trade and culture, and saw the construction of masterpieces of al-Andalus architecture.
The caliphate disintegrated in the early 11th century during the Fitna of al-Andalus, a civil war between the descendants of caliph Hisham II and the successors of his hajib (court official), Al-Mansur. In 1031, after years of infighting, the caliphate fractured into a number of independent Muslim taifa (kingdoms).[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate_of_C%C3%B3rdoba
Rancho Cordova is a city in Sacramento County, California, United States which was incorporated in 2003. It is part of the Sacramento Metropolitan Area. The population was 79,332 at the 2020 census. In 2010 and 2019, Rancho Cordova received the All-America City Award.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Cordova,_California
Sacramento Raceway Park (SRP), commonly shortened to Sacramento Raceway or Sac Raceway, was a motorsports track on 198 acres (80 ha) near Rancho Cordova, California and the former Mather Air Force Base, known for holding weekly drag race events and annual Governors Cup Championship. It was completed in 1964 and the last races were held in November 2023.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Raceway_Park
Fortún Jiménez de Bertadoña discovered the Baja California Peninsula in early 1534. However, it was Hernán Cortés who recognized the peninsula as the "Island of California" in May 1535, and is therefore officially credited with the discovery. In January 1683, the Spanish government chartered an expedition consisting of three ships to transport a contingent of 200 men to the southern tip of Baja California. Under the command of the governor of Sinaloa, Isidoro de Atondo y Antillón, and accompanied by Jesuit priest Eusebio Francisco Kino, the ships made landfall in La Paz. The landing party was eventually forced to abandon its initial settlement due to the hostile response on the part of the natives. The missionaries attempted to establish a settlement near present-day Loreto, which they named Misión San Bruno but failed for lack of supplies.[10] Kino went on to establish a number of missions in the Pimería Alta, now located in southern Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico.
The Jesuit priest Juan María de Salvatierra eventually managed to establish the first permanent Spanish settlement in Baja California, the Misión Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó. Founded on October 19, 1697, the mission become the religious center of the peninsula and administrative capital of Las Californias. From there, other Jesuits went out to establish other settlements throughout the lower two-thirds of the peninsula, founding 17 missions and several visitas (sub-missions) between 1697 and 1767.[11]
Unlike the mainland settlements that were designed to be self-sustaining enterprises, the remote and harsh conditions on the peninsula made it all but impossible to build and maintain these missions without ongoing assistance from the mainland. Supply lines from across the Gulf of California, including from the missions and ranches of Padre Eusebio Kino on the mainland to the Port of Guaymas, played a crucial role in keeping the Baja California mission system intact.
During the sixty years that the Jesuits were permitted to work among the natives of California, 56 members of the Society of Jesus came to the Baja California peninsula, of whom 16 died at their posts (two as martyrs). Fifteen priests and one lay brother survived the hardships, only to be subjected to enforcement of the decree launched against the Society by King Carlos III of Spain.[12] It was rumored that the Jesuit priests had amassed a fortune on the peninsula and were becoming very powerful. On February 3, 1768 the King ordered the Jesuits forcibly expelled from the Americas and returned to the home country. Gaspar de Portolà was appointed Governor of Las Californias, with orders to supervise the Jesuit expulsion and oversee the installation of replacement Franciscan priests.[13]
The Franciscans, under the leadership of Fray Junípero Serra, took charge of the missions and closed or consolidated several of the existing installations. A total of 39 Friars Minor toiled on the peninsula during the five years and five months of Franciscan rule. Four of them died, 10 were transferred to new northern missions, and the remainder returned to Europe.[14]
Governor Portolà was put in command of an expedition to travel north and establish new settlements at San Diego and Monterey. Serra went along as leader of the missionaries, to establish missions in those places.[15] On the way north, Serra founded Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá. Francisco Palóu was left in charge of the existing missions, and founded the Visita de la Presentación in 1769.
Representatives of the Dominican order arrived in 1772, and by 1800, had established nine more missions in northern Baja, all the while continuing with the administration of the former Jesuit missions. The peninsula was divided into two separate entities in 1804, with the southern one having the seat of government established in the Port of Loreto. In 1810, Mexico sought to end Spanish colonial rule, gaining her independence in 1821, after which Mexican President Guadalupe Victoria named Lt. Col. José María Echeandía governor of Baja California Sur and divided it into four separate municipios (municipalities). The capital was moved to La Paz in 1830, after Loreto was partially destroyed by heavy rains. In 1833, after Baja California was designated as a federal territory, the governor formally put an end to the mission system by converting the missions into parish churches.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_missions_in_Baja_California
California High Court Rules Lottery Keno Game Is Illegal
By a Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter
June 25, 1996 12:01 am ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB8356617103204500
June 29 – Siege of Córdoba: Castilian forces under King Ferdinand III (the Saint) capture Muslim Córdoba from Emir Ibn Hud, as part of the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.[2]
July – At a diet (princely convention) in Piacenza, Emperor Frederick II proclaims his wish to recover all Italy for the Holy Roman Empire.[3]
Pope Gregory IX condemned the links that both the Knights Templer and Knights Hospitaller have with the Assassin fighters in the Middle East. He issues a bull, a formal proclamation issued by the pope, preventing further contact with the Assassins.
May 6 – Roger of Wendover, English Benedictine monk and chronicler, dies at St. Albans Abbey. His chronicle is continued by Matthew of Paris.
1236
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1236
Atheism: resisting it with all our forces is a special mission given to the Society by the supreme pontiff, 253 2°; a mission which should permeate all forms of our apostolate, 254; our efforts are to be directed toward nonbelievers, ibid.; toward that end, an experience of God must be fostered in ourselves, 223 §§3-4, 224, 247
1° 2° 3° 6°;
and also in others, by means of the Spiritual Exercises, 271
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms
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"Michael Baigent, co-author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, confirms this history: "Many English, and it would appear, French Templars," he states, "found a Scottish refuge, and a sizable contingent is said to have fought at [King] Robert Bruce's side at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. According to the legend - and there is evidence to support it - the order maintained itself as a coherent body in Scotland for another four centuries."61 In Scotland the Knights Templar left their mark - an octagonal pattern with the splayed cross in the middle (see Appendix 2, Fig. 6). Sometimes the mark was only the octagon. This symbol, along with the skull and crossbones, and the number 13, imprinted on dated gravestones, has assisted researchers in tracing the migration of the Templars. A descendant of Robert Bruce, the Catholic James Stuart VI, reigned in Scotland from 1567 until he ascended the British throne as James I in 1603. He succeeded the unmarried Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603), who enforced Protestantism by law, but who, because of her lack of an heir, designated James her successor on her deathbed. During James I's reign (1603-1625) we 34 received the King James Version of the Bible, the first official English translation of the Bible. Like their ancestors, the Stuarts had been initiated into the Order of the Knights Templar, and James was more Templar than Catholic. James arrived in England with a contingent of Scottish Templars, and their first lodge opened at York in northern England at the turn of the 17th century. During James Stuart's reign the embryos of both the Scottish and York Rites of Freemasonry developed in England. At that time it was called Jacobite Freemasonry, in memory of the martyred Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay. James and his descendants were members of the Royalist Jacobite Lodges, which practiced Templar rituals. Later these rituals became known to Masons in England and America as the York Rite, and in France and America as the Scottish Rite."
Scarlet and the Beast by John Daniel
https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf
"Thirteenth Rule. To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it, believing that between Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom, and the Church, His Bride, there is the same Spirit which governs and directs us for the salvation of our souls. Because by the same Spirit and our Lord Who gave the ten Commandments, our holy Mother the Church is directed and governed."
The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YC_luOfFWl0Bm0BWkbANKZGC1kkmdHQf/view?usp=sharing
"14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"
page 221
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
ON 27 SEPTEMBER 1540, THE SOCIETY OF JESUS RECEIVED PAPAL APPROVAL
https://www.jesuits.global/2021/09/26/on-27-september-1540-the-society-of-jesus-received-papal-approval/
"Numerology (known prior to the 20th century as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in words and names. When numerology is applied to a person's name, it is a form of onomancy. It is often associated with the paranormal, alongside astrology, and is similar to divinatory arts.[2]The term numerologist can be used for those who place faith in numerical patterns and draw inferences from them, even if those people do not practice traditional numerology. For example, in his 1997 book Numerology: Or What Pythagoras Wrought (DUDLEY 1997), mathematician Underwood Dudley uses the term to discuss practitioners of the Elliott wave principle of stock market analysis."
Numerology - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerology
"An enormous trove of gnostic learning had been brought from the eastern Mediterranean by agents of Clement VII’s great-grandfather, Cosimo d’Medici. Suppressed since the Emperor Justinian had piously shut down the pagan colleges of A t h e n s back in 5 2 9 , these celebrated mystical, scientific and philosophical scrolls and manuscripts flattered humanity. They taught that human intelligence was competent to determine truth from falsehood without guidance or assistance from any god. Since, as Protagoras put it, “man is the measure of all things,” man could control all the living powers of the universe. If elected and initiated into the secret knowledge, or gnosis, man could master the cabalah – the “royal science” of names, numbers, and symbols – to create his very own divinity." Rulers of Evil by F. Tupper Saussy
F. Tupper Saussy - Rulers of Evil, Useful Knowledge About Governing Bodies.pdf (archive.org)
https://ia601808.us.archive.org/10/items/f.-tupper-saussy-rulers-of-evil-useful-knowledge-about-governing-bodies/F.%20Tupper%20Saussy%20-%20Rulers%20of%20Evil%2C%20Useful%20Knowledge%20About%20Governing%20Bodies.pdf
"Can. 666 In the use of means of social communication, necessary discretion is to be observed and those things are to be avoided which are harmful to one’s vocation and dangerous to the chastity of a consecrated person." TITLE II. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES (Cann. 607 - 709) CODE OF CANON LAW
https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib2-cann607-709_en.html
"HEAD:
1. See Illness, mental
2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"
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"[666] 6. 1On the side of the superior general, what will aid toward this union of hearts are the qualities of his person [G], to be treated in Part IX [723-25], with which he will perform his office, 2which is to be for all the members a head from which the influence required for the end sought by the Society ought to descend to them all. 3It is thus from the general as head that all authority of the provincials should flow, from the provincials that of the local superiors, and from the local superiors that of the individual members. 4And from this same head, or at least by his commission and approval, should likewise come the appointing of missions. And the same should apply to communicating the graces of the Society. 5For the more the subjects are dependent upon their superiors, the better will the love, obedience, and union among them be preserved."
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms
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"Revelation 13:16-18
New International Version
"16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[a] That number is 666.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013%3A16-18&version=NIV
The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion; Spanish: Decreto de la Alhambra, Edicto de Granada) was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion of practising Jews from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon and its territories and possessions by 31 July of that year.[1] The primary purpose was to eliminate the influence of practising Jews on Spain's large formerly-Jewish converso New Christian population, to ensure the latter and their descendants did not revert to Judaism. Over half of Spain's Jews had converted as a result of the religious persecution and pogroms which occurred in 1391.[2] Due to continuing attacks, around 50,000 more had converted by 1415.[3] A further number of those remaining chose to convert to avoid expulsion. As a result of the Alhambra decree and persecution in the years leading up to the expulsion of Spain's estimated 300,000 Jewish origin population, a total of over 200,000 had converted to Catholicism to remain in Spain, and between 40,000 and 100,000 remained Jewish and suffered expulsion. An unknown number of the expelled eventually succumbed to the pressures of life in exile away from formerly-Jewish relatives and networks back in Spain, and so converted to Catholicism to be allowed to return in the years following expulsion.[4]:17
In 1924, the regime of Primo de Rivera granted Spanish citizenship to a part of the Sephardic Jewish diaspora, though few people benefited from it in practice.[5] The decree was then formally and symbolically revoked on 16 December 1968 by the regime of Francisco Franco,[6] following the Second Vatican Council. This was a full century after Jews had been openly practising their religion in Spain and synagogues were once more legal places of worship under Spain's Laws of Religious Freedom.
In 2015, the government of Spain passed a law allowing dual citizenship to Jewish descendants who apply, to "compensate for shameful events in the country's past."[7] Thus, Sephardi Jews who could prove that they are the descendants of those Jews expelled from Spain because of the Alhambra Decree would "become Spaniards without leaving home or giving up their present nationality."[8][9] The Spanish law[10] expired in 2019 and new applications for Spanish citizenship on the basis of Sephardic family heritage are no longer allowed. However, the descendants of the Jews exiled from the Iberian Peninsula may still apply for Portuguese citizenship.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree
Amber is a solidified resinous gum, and is commonly full of electricity. It was supposed, in the hands of those gifted correspondingly, to abound with the means of magic. In this respect it resembles the thyrsus or pinecone, which was always carried in processions—Bacchanalian or otherwise— in connection with the mysteries. We can consider the name of the palace, or fortress, or “royal” house in Grenada, in Spain, in this respect following. The word “Alhambra,” or “Al-Hambra,” means the “Red.” In Arabia this means the place of eminence, the “place of places,” or the “Red,” in the same acceptation that the sea between Arabia and Egypt is called the “Red Sea.” All spirits generally (in connection with those things supposed to be evil or indifferent especially) are “laid” in the “Red Sea,” when disposed of by exorcism, or in forceful conjuration. We think that this “Hambra,” “ambra,” or “ambre,” is connected with the substance amber, which is sometimes very red, and which amber has always been associated with magical influence, magical formularies, and with spirits. We have seen an ancient crucifix, carved in amber, which was almost of the redness of coral. Amber has always been a substance (or gem, or gum) closely mingling with superstitions, from the most ancient times. For further connected ideas of the word “amber” and the substance “amber” in relation to magic and sorcery, and for the recurrence of the word “amber” and its varieties in matters referring to the mysteries and the mythology generally of ancient times, the reader will please to refer to other parts of this volume."
"CHAPTER THE FIFTEENTH. FOOTSTEPS OF THE ROSICRUCIANS AMIDST ARCHITECTURAL OBJECTS"
THE ROSICRUCIANS THEIR RITES AND MYSTERIES
by Hargrave Jennings
A converso (Spanish: [komˈbeɾso]; Portuguese: [kõˈvɛɾsu]; feminine form conversa), "convert", (from Latin conversvs 'converted, turned around') was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants.
To safeguard the Old Christian population and make sure that the converso "New Christians" were true to their new faith, the Holy Office of the Inquisition was established in Spain in 1478. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the remaining openly practising Jews by the Alhambra Decree of 1492, following the Christian Reconquista (reconquest) of Spain. However, a significant proportion of these remaining practising Jews chose to join the already large converso community rather than face exile.[1][verification needed]
Conversos who did not fully or genuinely embrace Catholicism, but continued to practise Judaism in secrecy, were referred to as judaizantes "Judaizers" and pejoratively as marranos "swine".
New Christian converts of Muslim origin were known as moriscos. Unlike Jewish conversos, moriscos were subject to an edict of expulsion even after their conversion to Catholicism, which was implemented severely in Valencia and in Aragón and less so in other parts of Spain.[citation needed]
Conversos played a vital role[which?] in the 1520–1521 Revolt of the Comuneros, a popular uprising in the Crown of Castile against the rule of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Converso
"[89] 32. 1In time of illness one ought to observe obedience with great integrity not only toward his spiritual superiors that they may direct his soul, but also and with equal humility toward the physicians and infirmarians that they may care for his body; 2for the former work for his complete spiritual welfare and the latter for that which is corporal. 3Furthermore, the one who is sick should, by showing his great humility and patience, try to give no less edification in time of illness to those who visit him and CONVERSE and deal with him than he does in time of full health, for the greater glory of God. "
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norm https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The alumbrados of Castile were a movement that caused much trouble during the first three decades of the sixteenth century. Their ideas were represented by the “Big Three” beatas who, under noble patronage, for at least a decade previous to the arrest in 1524 of the “mother” of the movement (Isabel de la Cruz) had successfully proselytized and spread their ideas throughout Old and New Castile.1
The alumbrados certainly were a charismatic bunch; they enjoyed success with the elites of Castilian society, comuneros, but above all with women and conversos. As a religious movement led by women the alumbrados were part of a growing trend of individual, charismatic female piety. By the time of Cardinal Cisneros’s death in 1517, however, the era of the alumbrados and their grassroots converso spirituality was nearing its end. While the actual heyday of their movement was short-lived the alumbrados made a huge impact upon the minds Prospering in the environment of Catholic spiritual exploration fostered by the personal theological interests of the Archbishop of Toledo Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros the alumbrados presented an interiorized approach to Christianity. Equipped with the meditational practice of dejamiento the alumbrados stressed the importance of an individual, pseudo-mystical “abandonment” to God and His will. They also emphasized the insignificance of external rituals and works, calling them ataduras or “shackles” to the material world, ties that only served to hinder one’s abandonment to God.
of the Inquisitors who prosecuted them and upon the Spanish religious imagination, an impact that would last across seas and time."
EL SABOR DE HEREJIA: THE EDICT OF 1525, THE ALUMBRADOS
AND THE INQUISITORS’ USAGE OF LOCURA
By
JAVIER A. MONTOYA
http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0041385/montoya_j.pdf
Alumbrado, (Spanish: “Enlightened”, ) Italian Illuminato, plural Illuminati, a follower of a mystical movement in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its adherents claimed that the human soul, having attained a certain degree of perfection, was permitted a vision of the divine and entered into direct communication with the Holy Spirit. From this state the soul could neither advance nor retrogress. Consequently, participation in the liturgy, good works, and observance of the exterior forms of religious life were unnecessary for those who had received the “light.” The Alumbrados came primarily from among the reformed Franciscans and the Jesuits, but their doctrines seem to have influenced all classes of people. The extravagant claims made for their visions and revelations caused them to be relentlessly persecuted. The Inquisition issued edicts against them on three occasions (1568, 1574, and 1623)."
https://www.britannica.com/event/Alumbrado
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Pali Buddha (“the Awakened One, the Enlightened One”), from buddha (“awakened, enlightened”), from Sanskrit बुद्ध (buddha, “awakened, enlightened”), past participle of बोधति (bodhati, “to wake, to awaken”). Distantly related to English bid and bede. Also cognate with Russian будить (buditʹ, “to wake up”)."
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Buddha
"Gautama
surname of the Buddha, from Sanskrit Gotamah, properly a patronymic, literally "descendant of the greatest ox," from superlative of gauh "ox, bull, cow."
https://www.etymonline.com/word/buddha
Bull of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302
Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm
"Constitution of the Society of Jesus Papal Bull, 1540
THE PLAN of the proposed rule follows and is this: In our society, which we wish to be called by the name Jesus, let whoever desires to fight under the sacred banner of the Cross, and to serve only God and the Roman pontiff, His vicar on earth, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity,-let him keep in mind that he is part of a society, instituted for the purpose of perfecting souls in life and in Christian doctrine, for the propagation of the faith through public preaching, ministering the word of God, spiritual macerations, works of charity, and especially through the teaching of the young and uninstructed in the Christian precepts; and lastly for giving consolation to believers in hearing their confessions. Let him think first of God, then of the rule of this order, which is the way to Him; and let him follow after the end proposed by God with all his strength. Let each one, nevertheless, rest in the grace given him by the Holy Spirit, and in the proper grade of his calling, and lest anyone use zeal but not discretion, let the deciding of the grade of each, of the offices, and whole arrangement be in the hands of the general or prelate selected through us, in order that the harmony so necessary in all well-governed institutions may be preserved. Let this general, with the council of his associates, have the power in council to draw up rules suitable for the end proposed, the majority of all voters of the society always having the right of deciding. Let it be understood that there be consultation in regard to the more important or permanent questions, the majority of the whole society, that can conveniently be convoked; in the case of less important or transient matters, all those that are present where the general lives. The right of carrying out laws, however, belongs only to the general. Let all members know, and let it be not only at the beginning of their profession, but let them think over it daily as long as they live, that the society as a whole, and each of them, owes obedience to our most holy lord, the pope, and the other Roman pontiffs, his successors, and to fight with faithful obedience for God. And however much he may be learned in the Gospel, and however we may be taught in the orthodox faith, let all Christians profess themselves under the Roman pontiff as leader, and vicar of Jesus Christ. For the greater humility of our society, and toward the complete self-mortification of each one, and in order to aid the abnegation of our own wills to the greatest extent, let each one, besides that common obligation, be devoted to this by special vow. So that whatever the present or other Roman pontiffs order that concerns the saving of souls and the spread of the faith, and to whatever provinces he shall wish to send us, this let us strive to accomplish as far as in us lies, without any turning back or excuse; whether he shall send us to the Turks, or to any other infidels, even those living in the lands that are called the Indies; or to any heretics or schismatics, or believers, whatever. Wherefore let those that are about to join us consider long and well, before they put their shoulders to this task, whether they have enough grace for good deeds to mount this citadel at the command of their superiors; that is, whether the Holy Spirit that urges them promises to them enough grace to enable them with God’s help to bear the weight of this calling. And after they have given their name, at the inspiration of the Lord, to the service of Jesus Christ, having thus girded up their loins, they will be prompt to fulfill this grand vow. Lest in some way there arise ambition or jealousy in regard to such missions or provinces, let all agree never either directly or indirectly to interfere with the Roman pontiff in this regard, but let them leave all such concern to God, and to the pontiff himself, His vicar, and to the general of the society. And let the general himself promise the same as the others, not to take upon himself a mission in any direction unless by the council of the society, with the agreement of the pontiff."
Given at Rome at St. Mark’s, in the year of Incarnation of our Lord 1540, the fifth before the Kalends of October, in the sixth year of our pontificate."
http://www.catholiclawyersmalaysia.org/sites/default/files/constitution_of_the_society_of_jesus.pdf
"Exodus 32
1599 Geneva Bible
32 4 The Israelites impute their deliverance to the calf. 14 God is appeased by Moses’ prayer. 19 Moses breaketh the Tables.
1 But when the people saw, that Moses tarried long ere he came down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together against Aaron, and said unto him, Up, [a]make us gods to go before us: for of this Moses (the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt) we know not what is become of him.
2 And Aaron said unto them, [b]Pluck off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
3 Then all the people plucked from [c]themselves the golden earrings, which were in their ears, and they brought them unto Aaron.
4 Who received them at their hands, and fashioned it with the graving tool, and made of it a [d]molten calf: then they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
5 When Aaron saw that, he made an Altar before it: and Aaron proclaimed, saying, Tomorrow shall be the holy day of the Lord.
6 So they rose up the next day in the morning, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings: also the people sat them down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
7 ¶ Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go get thee down: for thy people which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath corrupted their ways.
8 They [e]are soon turned out of the way, which I commanded them: for they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have offered thereto, saying, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
9 Again the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
10 Now [f]therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, for I will consume them: but I will make of thee a mighty people
11 But Moses prayed unto the Lord his God, and said, O Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 Wherefore shall the Egyptians [g]speak, and say, He hath brought them out maliciously for to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the earth? turn from thy fierce wrath, and [h]change thy mind from this evil toward thy people.
13 Remember [i]Abraham, Isaac, and Israel thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidest unto them, I will multiply your seed, as the stars of heaven, and all this land, that I have spoken of, will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.
14 Then the Lord changed his mind from the evil, which he threatened to do unto his people.
15 So Moses returned and went down from the mountain with the two Tables of the Testimony in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides, even on the one side and on the other were they written.
16 And these Tables were the work of God, and [j]this writing was the writing of God graven in the Tables.
17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people, as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the host.
18 Who answered, It is not the noise of them that have the victory, nor the noise of them that are overcome: but I do hear the noise of singing.
19 Now, as soon as he came near unto the host, he saw the calf and the dancing: so Moses’ wrath waxed hot, and he cast the Tables out of his hands, and brake them in pieces beneath the mountain.
20 After, he took the calf, which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it unto powder, and strowed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel [k]drink of it.
21 Also Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?
22 Then Aaron answered, Let not the wrath of my Lord wax fierce: Thou knowest this people, that they are even set on mischief.
23 And they said unto me, Make us gods to go before us: for we know not what is become of this Moses (the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt).
24 Then I said to them, Ye that have gold, pluck it off: and they brought it me, and I did cast it into the fire, and thereof came this calf.
25 Moses therefore saw that the people were [l]naked (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies)
26 And Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who pertaineth to the Lord? let them come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves unto him.
27 Then he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Put every man his sword by his side, go to and fro, from gate to gate, through the host, and [m]slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.
28 So the children of Levi did as Moses had commanded: and there fell of the people the same day about three thousand men.
29 (For Moses had said, Consecrate your hands unto the Lord this day, even every man upon his [n]son, and upon his brother, that there may be given you a blessing this day.)
30 And when the morning came, Moses said unto the people, Ye have committed a grievous crime: but now I will go up to the Lord, if I may pacify him for your sin.
31 Moses therefore went again unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
32 Therefore now if thou pardon their sin, thy mercy shall appear: but if thou wilt not, I pray thee, raise me [o]out of thy book, which thou hast written.
33 Then the Lord said to Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, I will put him out of my [p]book.
34 Go now therefore, bring the people unto the place which I commanded thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee, but yet in the day of my visitation I will visit their sin upon them.
35 [q]So the Lord plagued the people, because they caused Aaron to make the calf which he made.
Footnotes
Exodus 32:1 The root of Idolatry is, when men think that God is not at hand, except they see him carnally.
Exodus 32:2 Thinking that they would rather forego idolatry, than to resign their most precious jewels.
Exodus 32:3 Such is the rage of idolaters, that they spare no cost to satisfy their wicked desires.
Exodus 32:4 They smelled of their leaven of Egypt, where they saw calves, oxen and serpents worshipped.
Exodus 32:8 Whereby we see what necessity we have to pray earnestly to God, to keep us in his true obedience, and to send us good guides.
Exodus 32:10 God showeth that the prayers of the godly stay his punishment.
Exodus 32:12 Or, blaspheme.
Exodus 32:12 Or, repent.
Exodus 32:13 That is, thy promise made to Abraham.
Exodus 32:16 All these repetitions show how excellent a thing they defrauded themselves of by their idolatry.
Exodus 32:20 Partly to despite them of their idolatry, and partly that they should have none occasion to remember it afterward.
Exodus 32:25 Both destitute of God’s favor, and an occasion to their enemies to speak evil of their God.
Exodus 32:27 This fact did so please God, that he turned the curse of Jacob against Levi to a blessing, Deut. 33:9.
Exodus 32:29 In revenging God’s glory we must have no respect to person, but put off all carnal affection.
Exodus 32:32 So much he esteemed the glory of God, that he preferred it even to his own salvation.
Exodus 32:33 I will make it known that he was never predestinated in mine eternal counsel to life everlasting.
Exodus 32:35 This declareth how grievous a sin idolatry is, seeing that at Moses’ prayer God would not fully remit"
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2032&version=GNV
THE WHEEL & THE CROSS
An Anthology by Jesuits & Friends on Buddhism and Dialogue Edited by Cyril Veliath, SJ
Published on behalf of the JCAP Buddhist Studies & Dialogue Group by MAGGA Jesuit Research Center
https://jcapsj.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/12/The-Wheel-The-Cross.pdf
Many in the US assume that the self-immolation was a protest against the war in Vietnam, paralleling anti-war protestors at home. This idea fits nicely into the popular association of Buddhism with peace. It is, however, wrong. Quang Duc’s self-immolation and the others that followed were a protest against the South Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Diem administration and its allies in the West. Vietnamese Buddhists felt persecuted by the Vietnamese administration’s pro-Catholic stance. Their self-immolations were acts to defend Buddhism.
Buddhists have always been involved in civil disobedience movements and peace-making agendas, such as the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka. Further, Buddhist meditations have proven incredibly helpful in the rehabilitation of criminals. In short, Buddhism, to its practitioners, is not an ‘accoutrement’ to life or ‘just’ a philosophy – it is a full-bodied religion whose adherents are eager to protect. The myth of Buddhism as a wholly peaceful religion ignores Buddhists’ agency and diversity – and the fact that they will go to great lengths to defend their religion, whether by way of pistol-bearing monks or self-immolating protesters.
Recently, Buddhists in Myanmar and Sri Lanka have also called for violence. In 2013, Time magazine placed the Burmese Buddhist monk U Wirathu on their cover with the headline ‘The Face of Buddhist Terror’. U Wirathu has been a fiery critic of Burmese Muslims, particularly those who identify as Rohingya. The 2014 Myanmar census found that Buddhists make up 89 per cent of the population, compared with Muslims at 4.3 per cent. Nevertheless, U Wirathu and his counterparts argue that both Burmese Buddhism and Myanmar itself are threatened by the ‘Islamification of Asia’. In well-attended sermons, U Wirathu has repeatedly derided Muslims and Islam, accusing them of seeking to destroy Burmese culture and the future of Buddhism. In one sermon, he likened Muslims to the African carp, explaining that they are inherently violent, prone to breed quickly, and want to eat their own kind.
U Wirathu is a member of the 969 movement. This movement and the Ma Ba Tha (the Patriotic Association of Myanmar) retain significant influence over the Buddhists of Myanmar. They distribute pamphlets and taped sermons that warn about the threat of Islam. Their work to foment fear of Muslims helps to propel Burmese Buddhists toward violence, as in the murderous anti-Muslim riots in the central city of Meiktila in 2013, where at least 40 people died. Before these, there were powerful precursors from the western Rakhine state. Since 2012, nearly 140,000 Rohingya have been displaced from their homes in Rakhine. Most of these Rohingya have been deported from homes into special internment camps. Due to the terrible conditions in these camps, journalists such as Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times argue that the Buddhist treatment of the Rohingya constitutes genocide.
In 2015, the two Burmese Buddhist organisations successfully lobbied for the passage of pro-Buddhist legislation. Many international human-rights groups argue that these new laws are discriminatory against minority groups, particularly Muslims. U Wirathu continues to develop connections not only with Thailand’s Buddhist monks, but also with Sri Lankan Buddhist monks.
The Buddhist organisation ran an incendiary campaign, calling for a boycott on stores selling halal-certified meat
From 1983, Sri Lanka was engaged in a civil war. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fought to separate and form their own independent state of Tamil Eelam. The Sri Lankan government opposed this, both through secular language and Buddhist rhetoric. Buddhist monks fiercely argued against negotiations, and for fighting to keep Sri Lanka ‘whole’. For these monks, Sri Lanka is the true land of Buddhism and it was under attack. Monks were straightforward political players, delivering incendiary speeches, joining political parties (such as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna), and taking part in violent clashes.
The civil war ended in 2009, but Sri Lankan Buddhist monks have continued to push their political agendas. Since 2011, there have been further escalations in violent rhetoric by Sri Lankan Buddhist nationalist organisations such as the Sinhala Ravaya (The Roar of the Sinhalese), the Ravana Balaya (Ravana’s Force) and the Bodu Bala Sena (The Army of Buddhist Power). Often, the rhetoric is directed at businesses, for example against halal provision for Muslims. In early 2013, the Bodu Bala Sena ran an incendiary campaign, calling for a boycott against stores that provided halal-certified meat. The Buddhist organisation falsely alleged that Muslims were slaughtering young calves (an illegal practice), and accused the governing body for halal-certification, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama, of taking steps to bring about Sharia law in Sri Lanka.
Similar to their counterparts in Myanmar, these Sri Lankan Buddhist groups have incited anti-Muslim riots, as in Aluthgama in 2014. Buddhist groups have been implicated in the assassination of politicians and peace activists. The growing influence of these hyper-nationalist Buddhist organisations, together with the Sri Lankan government’s tacit support (through a lack of response) has spurred NGOs and local communities to protest. In November 2016, 367 Sri Lankan citizens submitted a collective complaint about the inaction of the police to protect minorities from the persistence of Buddhist monk-led attacks.
No religion has a monopoly on ‘violent people’, nor does any one religion have a greater propensity for violence. Rather, social conditions such as poverty and societal upheavals generate violent behaviour, regardless of religion. It is no coincidence that poorer regions and neighbourhoods suffer higher crime rates. When people find the world changing around them, they turn to their religion to make sense of things. Some look to religion as a means to preserve what they have, and religion provides a way of understanding one’s place in the world and, more importantly, one’s duty.
In order to comprehend such people’s justifications for violence, it is important to explore their worldview, namely, the way in which Buddhists understand and protect what is sacred to them. Although Buddhism is incredibly diverse, all Buddhists venerate the Triple Jewels: Buddha, Dharma (doctrine) and Sangha (monastic community). As long as these jewels remain in the world, humanity still has a way of escaping the vicious cycle of rebirth. Buddhists, along with Hindus, Jains and Sikhs, believe that time is cyclical, and that there is a decline before the end of each great cycle.
According to Buddhists, their doctrine provides rulers with justice, societies with equilibrium, and individuals with a path to salvation. Its attenuation, therefore, is one sign of the decline. Another is the absence, or dwindling numbers, of the sangha. When there are no more monks, Buddhist End Times will begin.
Buddhist scriptures measure internal time by how many breaths you take, and external (cosmic) time through the rotation of four kalpas, or aeons. Unlike in Abrahamic religions, time in Buddhism has no beginning. It is a constant cycle. There is no definitive amount of time given for each kalpa, but Buddhist scriptures provide suggestive analogies. In the Prajnaparamita Sutra, one kalpa lasts longer than the time required to wear away an 18,000-square-metre rock by brushing it with a piece of cloth once every 100 years.
The first kalpa is a formative and chaotic period. In the second kalpa, the chaos continues to unfold. It is only in the third kalpa in which the chaos declines, and the world enters into a rapid stage of evolution. The fourth and final kalpa is called the Age of Destruction. It ends with an apocalyptic rainfall that destroys all life and sparks the beginning of the first kalpa. Buddhists believe that we are living in the fourth and final section of the last kalpa. The end of the kalpa will inevitably come and, when it does, a new Buddha will emerge: Maitreya, the Buddha-to-be. But Buddhists can forestall the end. The longer the Buddhist monks and their doctrine remain strong, then the slower the pace toward the end of the kalpa.
Buddhist traditions have different ways of identifying the signs of deterioration. According to legend, on the eve of the Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) becoming awakened, he was tempted by Mara, the embodiment of desire, death and rebirth. Although he conquered his desires and vanquished Mara, many Buddhists have believed that the re-appearance of Mara is a sign that the End Times have arrived. Others think that the erosion of their sacred Three Jewels signals the beginning of the end. In order to forestall the quickening of the End Times, Buddhists have fought against the manifestations of Mara and to preserve the integrity of their practices and doctrine.
For instance, in sixth-century China, the Buddhist monk Faqing led a revolt and declared the arrival of a new Buddha. He marshalled 50,000 men to fight, promising them that, with each kill, they would reach a higher stage in the bodhisattva path. In ninth-century Tibet, Emperor Langdarma was assassinated by a Tibetan lama. According to Tibetan sources, Langdarma had become possessed by demonic forces (gdon). He destroyed monasteries and began to attack the Buddhist establishment. Things were changing and not in the right direction. The murder of Langdarma ‘saved’ Buddhism in Tibet. It has become such an important event that the Tibetans commemorate the murder in their Cham dance, which offers moral instructions through performance.
Japanese fighter planes carried images of the Buddhist embodiment of compassion, Avalokiteshvara
During the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese emperor strengthened support for Shintoism, and began to dismantle Buddhist institutions that were not favourable to the state. Buddhist monks had a choice of either complying with the state, or leaving the monkhood. Many remained and supported the onset of Japanese imperialism. During the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05, Rinzai Buddhist monks spoke out in favour of the military campaign. For them, the war was a fight for the preservation of civilisation and the Buddhist doctrine – a fight for the world.
The Buddhist call-to-arms reoccurred throughout the Second World War. Japanese fighter planes carried images of the Buddhist embodiment of compassion, Avalokiteshvara. Zen and Pure Land Buddhist monks argued that the Second World War was justified in order to preserve ‘true’ Buddhism. The Buddhist traditions in places such as China, Korea and Singapore had become corrupt and faulty. It was a sign of decay.
As humanity moves closer to the Buddhist End Times, the Buddhist doctrine explains that it will become harder for a person to become enlightened. In recent years, many Buddhists have turned to Pure Land Buddhism. These Buddhists believe that our world is now fraught with a multitude of obstacles to becoming fully awakened. To avoid this, a follower practices uttering Amitabh’s name (nianfo) and visualizing him. In this way, the follower ensures a rebirth in Pure Land, where he can receive the teachings from the Bodhisattva Amitabha to reach enlightenment. Pure Land Buddhism is one of the largest populated traditions in East Asia, and is quickly expanding its numbers globally. While some Buddhists turn to traditions such as Pure Land Buddhism, others fight to preserve what they believe is true Buddhism, such as in southern Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Over the centuries, there have been tremendous changes to Buddhism. Indeed, change is one of the foundational principles in Buddhism: all is impermanent. Some changes are in concert with modernity, others are in reaction. Each Buddhist tradition has transformed with the times – and the times are always changing. But there are persistent patterns that keep pace with these changes. Buddhist monks in the early sixth-century China led revolts to defend Buddhism. Today, monks in Thailand, Burma and Sri Lanka continue to fight – violently – for their religion and to call their followers to action. The cycle of violence continues in this final stage of the cycle of time: the Kali Yuga, the Age of Destruction.
Religion
War and peace
Values and beliefs
26 April 2017
https://aeon.co/essays/buddhism-can-be-as-violent-as-any-other-religion
Who was Gautama Buddha?
The man known as Gautama Buddha, or simply “Buddha,” was born as Siddhartha Gautama around the 6th century BC. Much of what we know of Buddha is passed down from legends and oral traditions. There are no written works mentioning him until several centuries after his death. According to mainstream accounts, he was born to an aristocratic family who sheltered him from worldly suffering. Despite their efforts, he learned of pain and misery, became discouraged, and gave up his wealth in order to become a religious ascetic. Eventually, Gautama Buddha settled on an approach avoiding the extremes of gluttony and self-denial. His teachings form the basis of the religion known today as Buddhism.
Historical information about Buddha is difficult to find. The earliest written texts detailing his life and teachings are dated nearly 500 years after his death. However, he is referenced indirectly in other texts, and his teachings are mentioned by others well before this. Despite the scarcity of information, scholars are confident that Gautama Buddha was an historical person and that the commonly held outline of his life is accurate. Particular details about him, including finer details of his philosophy, are impossible to know with any certainty. Not surprisingly, biographical details of Buddha’s life tend toward the fantastic, including his possessing various supernatural powers.
Siddhartha Gautama’s family was wealthy and powerful. Various biographies describe him as athletic, beautiful, and well trained as a warrior. His parents attempted to shelter him from knowledge of pain and suffering. They also kept him from religious teachings, which in that time and place were a blend of local superstitions and various interpretations of Hinduism. As a result, Buddha was nearly thirty years old before first experiencing sickness or death. Against his parents’ wishes, he ventured outside the palace walls and discovered dead bodies, elderly people, and sick people. In response, he ran away from his family and became an ascetic, living as a beggar and owning no property.
During these early years, Gautama experimented with various spiritual disciplines but rejected all of them. Buddha eventually attempted to live without even eating, an experiment that nearly killed him. This experience convinced him that neither greed nor austerity were the keys to happiness. He determined meditation to be the only way to determine truth. So, he sat under a tree and resolved to stay there until he had discovered ultimate truth. Nearly fifty days later, Siddhartha Gautama is said to have attained Enlightenment, or a state of perfect spiritual awareness. From this point on, he was known as “Buddha” or “The Enlightened One.”
For the rest of his life, Buddha lived as a wandering teacher and developed a large following. The only teaching definitively tied to Buddha himself is an emphasis on meditation as the “middle way” between hedonism and self-denial. Whether by Buddha himself or by his early followers, Buddhism was founded on concepts such as the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, and a continuation of certain Hindu beliefs including karma and reincarnation. According to Buddhist teachings, life is suffering, and suffering is primarily caused by desire. The only way to break the cycle of rebirth, per Buddhism, is to shed all desires, follow the Middle Way, and attain the perfect state of emptiness. Once a person is purged of all cravings and repulsions, he or she becomes a Buddha and stops reincarnating.
Gautama Buddha died around the age of eighty. Various biographical sources attribute his death to either food poisoning or a bowel obstruction.
Despite what well-meaning people may claim, Buddha’s life and teachings are starkly different from those of Jesus Christ. Their backgrounds, morality, and spirituality were drastically different, as were their approaches to life and human advancement.
Buddha’s life is known only by texts dated centuries after his life, most of which strongly contradict each other. The written documents we have speaking of Jesus’ life were written within a few years of his crucifixion, were widespread less than a century later, and contain harmonized details.
Buddha was born into privilege, struggled to find his way, and eventually spent decades as a spiritual guru. Jesus was born poor (Matthew 8:20), was renowned for lifelong virtue (Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 1:19), and taught publicly for only about three years.
Buddhism teaches that life is suffering and that one’s only hope is to cease to exist upon attaining emptiness. Christ taught that each person’s life is meaningful (John 14:3; Matthew 5:22) and capable of happiness (John 10:10) and that the ultimate goal of existence is eternity with God (Revelation 21:3–4).
Buddhism makes no factual or empirical claims—one either accepts its philosophical approach, or not. Christianity is rooted in history (1 Corinthians 15:3), evidence (Psalm 19:11; Romans 1:2), Scripture (Acts 17:11; John 5:39, 46–47), and prophecy (Luke 18:31; 24:27); and it requires a person to make a decision whether to accept or reject Jesus as Messiah (John 3:17–18).
Buddha died a revered sage of his people, at a ripe old age. Jesus was brutally executed (Mark 15:24) at the insistence of His own people (Mark 15:14–15) while just in His early thirties.
Most importantly, Buddha never claimed to be divine, and his death is considered the end of his story. Jesus Christ claimed to be God (Matthew 26:63–65), intended to prove it by His miracles (John 20:30–31), and was seen resurrected after His death by His closest friends and family (John 21:14; Acts 1:3).
https://www.gotquestions.org/Gautama-Buddha.html
John 21
1599 Geneva Bible
21 1 Jesus appeareth to his disciples as they were fishing, 6, 7 whom they know by a miraculous draught of fishes. 15 He committeth the charge of the sheep to Peter, 18 and foretelleth him of the manner of his death.
1 After these things, [a]Jesus showed himself again to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias: and thus showed he himself:
2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, which is called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.
3 Simon Peter said unto them, I go a fishing. They said unto him, We also will go with thee. They went their way and entered into a ship straightway, and that night caught they nothing.
4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: nevertheless the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
5 Jesus then said unto them, Sirs, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
6 Then he said unto them, Cast out the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. So they cast out, and they were not able at all to draw it, for the multitude of fishes.
7 Therefore said the disciple whom Jesus loved, unto Peter, It is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girded his [b]coat to him (for he was naked) and cast himself into the sea.
8 But the other disciples came by ship, (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits) and they drew the net with fishes.
9 As soon then as they were come to land, they saw hot coals, and fish laid thereon, and bread.
10 Jesus said unto them, Bring of the fishes, which ye have now caught.
11 Simon Peter stepped forth and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred, fifty and three: and albeit there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
12 Jesus said unto them, Come, and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? seeing they knew that he was the Lord.
13 Jesus then came and took bread and gave them, and fish likewise.
14 This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen again from the dead.
15 ¶ [c]So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon the son of Jonah, lovest thou me more than these? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He said to him again the second time, Simon the son of Jonah, lovest thou me? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He said unto him [d]the third time, Simon the son of Jonah, lovest thou me? Peter was sorry because he said to him the third time, Lovest thou me? and said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep.
18 [e]Verily, verily I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou [f]girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall [g]gird thee, and lead thee without thou wouldest [h]not.
19 And this spake he signifying by what [i]death he should glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, Follow me.
20 [j]Then Peter turned about, and saw the disciple whom JESUS loved, following, which had also leaned on his breast at supper, and had said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?
21 When Peter therefore saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what shall this man do?
22 Jesus said unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is it to thee? follow thou me.
23 Then went this word abroad among the brethren, that this disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said not to him, He shall not die: but if I will that he tarry till I come, what is it to thee?
24 [k]This is that disciple, which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25 Now there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose the world could not contain the books that should be written, Amen.
Footnotes
John 21:1 In that, that Christ here is not only present, but also eateth with his disciples, he giveth a most full assurance of his resurrection.
John 21:7 It was a linen garment, which could not let his swimming.
John 21:15 Peter by his triple confession is restored into his former degree from whence he fell by his triple denial: and therewithal is advertised, that he is indeed a pastor, which showeth his love to Christ in feeding his sheep.
John 21:17 It was meet that he that had denied him thrice, should confess him thrice, that Peter might neither doubt of the forgiveness of his so grievous a sin, nor of his restoring to the office of the Apostleship.
John 21:18 The violent death of Peter is foretold.
John 21:18 They that took far journeys, especially in the East country, and in those places [where] the people used long garments, had need to be girded and trussed up.
John 21:18 He meant that kind of girding which is used toward captives, when they are bound fast with cords and chains, as who would say, Now thou girdest thyself as thou thinkest best, to go whither thou listest, but the time will be, when thou shall not gird thee with a girdle, but another shall bind thee with chains, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
John 21:18 Not that Peter suffered ought for the truth of God against his will: for we read that he came with joy and gladness when he returned from the Council where he was whipped: but because this will cometh not from the flesh, but from the gift of the Spirit which is given us from above, therefore he showeth there should be a certain striving and conflict or repugnancy, which also is in us, in all our sufferances as touching the flesh.
John 21:19 That is, that Peter should die by a violent death.
John 21:20 We must take heed, that while we cast our eyes upon others, we neglect not that which is enjoined us.
John 21:24 The history of Christ is true and warily written: not for the curiosity of men, but for the salvation of the godly.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2021&version=GNV
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