Trump and Harris neck-and-neck as she prepares to announce VP pick after meeting candidates: Live
Trump and Harris neck-and-neck as she prepares to announce VP pick after meeting candidates: Live
by Oliver O'Connell,Namita Singh and Joe Sommerlad Aug 05, 2024 46 minutes
Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are virtually tied in the race for the White House, according to new polling.
Trump is at 49 per cent support compared to Harris’ 47 per cent, according to a CNN Poll of Polls — the average of the four most recent national polls — on Sunday.
The news comes as the presumptive Democratic nominee is on the verge of announcing who her running mate will be.
The final list includes Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.
Kelly, Walz and Shapiro all interviewed at Harris’s residence in Washington DC on Sunday.
The Harris campaign was also faced with scandal this weekend after Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff admitted having an affair during his first marriage, with his ex-wife coming out to defend him.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was meanwhile at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, with his own running mate JD Vance on Saturday as his campaign doubled down on his attacks on Harris’s ethnicity.
Trump told a conference of Black journalists last week that the Democrat “happened to turn Black” only recently.
Key Points
Who is winning in the Kamala Harris veepstakes?
Why Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro might be Harris’s running mate pick
Why Arizona’s Mark Kelly could be Harris’s best response to JD Vance
History-making Harris says she’s ‘honored’ to clinch presidential nomination
https://www.everand.com/article/756125372/Trump-And-Harris-Neck-And-Neck-As-She-Prepares-To-Announce-Vp-Pick-After-Meeting-Candidates-Live
San Francisco's 555 California St., co-owned by Trump, on lender watchlist
The beautiful, very great, big league skyscraper, still allegedly 30% owned by Donald Trump, is on a lender watchlist, according to Bloomberg
By Alex Shultz,
Politics editor, SFGATE
Updated Feb 23, 2023 3:40 p.m.
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/san-francisco-building-trump-stake-on-watchlist-17801816.php
Bill Clinton ‘Encouraged’ Trump to Run
SLICK WILLY
Updated Apr. 14, 2017 10:12AM EDT /
Published Aug. 05, 2015 3:33PM EDT
Bill Clinton called Donald Trump this spring and “encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party,” The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing five people familiar with the exchange. Clinton’s personal office confirmed the call occurred. Trump aides claim their boss was “candid about his political ambitions and his potential interest in seeking the White House during the talk....” Clinton “analyzed Trump’s prospects and his desire to rouse the GOP base,” according to Trump allies.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/08/05/bill-clinton-encouraged-trump
In 1966, the Harris family began moving around various locations in the MIDWEST, with both parents working at multiple universities in succession over a brief period.[20][21][22] Kamala, along with her mother and sister, moved back to California in 1970.[23][24][21] African-American intellectuals and rights advocates constituted Harris's formative surroundings.[25] Harris's parents divorced when she was seven. When she was twelve, Harris and her sister moved with their mother to Montreal, Quebec.[26][27] Harris graduated from Westmount High School[b] in 1981.[29]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris
It was while investigating the Little Rock integration incident in 1957 that I first learned of Pike’s rapid advance in Freemasonry, and knowing that Weishaupt, using Thomas Jefferson and Moses Holbrook, had infiltrated Illuminists into the Masonic Lodges of America, I decided I would find out if the fact that Pike’s mansion in Little Rock had thirteen rooms had any significance. “Thirteen’ figures prominently in Satanic, Luciferian and Cabalistic rituals, codes, and writings, etc. My investigations produced documentary evidence to show that, because of Pike’s exceptional mental ability, he came under the notice of professors in Harvard who were members of the Illuminati, who developed in his mind the ‘idea that a One World Government, a One World Religion and a One World financial and economic system was the ONLY solution to the world’s many and varied problems. I next discovered that his departure from Harvard was not due to lack of finances, or because of a misunderstanding with the faculty over tuition fees, but because of his ‘radical’ ideas and teachings. When he returned home determined that he would ‘fight’ his way to the top despite all opposition, he was in a suitable frame of mind to be recruited as a ‘Minerval’ or ‘apprentice’ into the lower degrees of the Illuminati."
Satan Prince of This World by William Guy Carr
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hw94yTrcRzvZjNQOo8T5_w-jqL8v5IMu/view?usp=sharing
Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, also known as Adams Field, is a joint civil-military airport on the east side of Little Rock, Arkansas. It is operated by the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission.
The largest commercial airport in Arkansas, it served more than 2.1 million passengers in the year spanning from March 2009 through to February 2010.[6] While Clinton National Airport does not have direct international passenger flights, more than 50 flights arrive or depart at Little Rock each day, with nonstop service to 14 cities.[7] The airport is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2019–2023, in which it is categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility.[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_National_Airport
The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site is located in HOPE, Arkansas.[2] Built in 1917 by Dr. H. S. Garrett, in this house the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton, spent the first four years of his life, having been born on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in HOPE, Arkansas.[3][4] The house was owned by Clinton's maternal grandparents, Edith Grisham and James Eldridge Cassidy, and they cared for him when his mother, Virginia, was away working as an anesthetist in New Orleans.[5]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_William_Jefferson_Clinton_Birthplace_Home_National_Historic_Site
Tragedy and HOPE: A History of the World in Our Time is a work of history written by former Georgetown University professor and historian Carroll Quigley. The book covers the period of roughly 1880 to 1963 and is multidisciplinary in nature though perhaps focusing on the economic problems brought about by the First World War and the impact these had on subsequent events. While global in scope, the book focuses on Western civilization."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_and_Hope
In his first year (1965) in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, Bill Clinton took Quigley's course, receiving a 'B' as his final grade in both semesters (an excellent grade in a course where nearly half the students received D or lower).[1]: 94, 96 In 1991, Clinton named Quigley as an important influence on his aspirations and political philosophy, when Clinton launched his presidential campaign in a speech at Georgetown.[1]: 96 He said he learned from Quigley that “The future can be better than the past, and that each of us has a personal, moral responsibility to make it so.” Bill Clinton told his audiences, “that is what the new choice is all about....We are not here to save the Democratic party. We are here to save the United States of America.” It was Clinton's most effective speech, and he repeated variations time and time again as the blueprint for his campaign message in winning the Democratic nomination and the general election for President of the United States in 1992.[21][22]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley
Theorists also cite the inclusion of Bill Clinton at the meetings in 1991 before he was president and Tony Blair’s presence in 1993 before he became the British prime minister as examples of the group’s power. Past attendees have included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who will also be attending this year), former Chase Manhattan chief executive David Rockefeller, and British Prime Minister David Cameron."
Bilderberg Group: What To Know About the Secretive Meetings
https://time.com/4362872/bilderberg-group-meetings-2016-conspiracy-theories/
Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner October 20, 2016 Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Henry Kissinger Gayle King Cardinal Dolan Katie Couric Chuck Schumer Mayor Bill de Blasio"
https://www.facebook.com/MariaBartiromo/posts/alfred-e-smith-memorial-foundation-dinner-october-20-2016-donald-trump-hillary-c/1353937201283479/
HOPE: all hope is to be placed in God, and with what degree of perfection [67]; eternal life alone is to be hoped for as a reward [82]; the extent to which this hope should be of assistance [288]; how hope should be shown by the dying | 595]; hope in the preservation and growth of the Society [812]. See also Faithfulness" The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms pg. 464
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
Trump and Harris neck-and-neck as she prepares to announce VP pick after meeting candidates Sunday: Live
Harris met with top running mate contenders Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro at her Washington DC residence
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kamala-harris-vp-pick-trump-polls-news-b2591106.html
Kamala Devi Harris[a] was born in Oakland, California,[15] on October 20, 1964.[16] Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan was a biologist who moved to the United States from India as a 19-year-old graduate student in 1958, and whose work on the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast cancer research.[17] Kamala Harris's father, DONALD J. Harris,[18] is a Stanford University professor of economics (emeritus) who arrived in the United States from Jamaica in 1961.[19]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Having won the 2024 presidential election as the nominee of the Republican Party, he is scheduled to be inaugurated as the 47th president on January 20, 2025.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
Trump selling ‘MAGADonald’s’ shirts after drive-thru appearance
by Lauren Irwin - 10/22/24 9:54 AM ET
Former President Trump is quickly capitalizing on his campaign stop in battleground Pennsylvania over the weekend, where he worked at a drive-thru at a McDonald’s, by selling T-shirts marking the event.
The shirt features a photo of the GOP nominee leaning out a drive-thru window, waving with text that reads “MAGADonald’s.”
“I have a McGift for you!” Trump’s campaign store website says. “I am the first and only 2024 presidential nominee to work at McDonald’s.”
Trump donned an apron and stepped behind the counter at a McDonald’s in Bucks County, Pa., on Sunday. He worked the drive-thru and fry cooker as part of a campaign photo op after mocking Vice President Harris for saying she worked at the fast food chain while in college.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4946430-donald-trump-pennsylvania-mcdonalds-merch/
The Golden Arches are the symbol of McDonald's, the global fast food restaurant chain. Originally, real arches were part of the restaurant design. They were incorporated into the chain's logo in 1962, which resembled a stylized restaurant, and in the current Golden Arches logo, introduced 1968, resembling an "M" for "McDonald's". They are widely regarded to be one of the most recognizable logos in the world.
History
In 1952, brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald decided they needed a new building to house their hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, California. They wanted this building to have an entirely new design which would achieve two goals: even greater efficiency, and an eye-catching appearance. They interviewed at least four architects altogether, finally choosing Stanley Clark Meston, an architect practicing in nearby Fontana, in late 1952. The arches had a direct bearing on the interviewing process and their choice of Meston: the first architect they interviewed objected to the arches the brothers wanted; a second wanted to change the arches; a third, prominent Los Angeles architect Douglas Honnold, said that if the brothers were going to tell him what to do they would be better off doing it themselves.[1]
Along with their practical knowledge, the brothers brought Meston a rough sketch of two half-circle arches drawn by Richard. The idea of an arch had struck Richard as a memorable shape to make their stand more visible. After considering one arch parallel to the front of the building, he had sketched two half-circles on either side of the stand.[1] Meston, together with his assistant Charles Fish, responded with a design which included two 25-foot (7.6 m) yellow sheet-metal arches trimmed in neon, called "golden arches" even at the design stage. His design also included a third, smaller arch sign at the roadside with a pudgy character in a chef's hat, known as Speedee, striding across the top, trimmed in animated neon.
According to architectural historian Alan Hess, "Meston and Fish turned the crude half-circle suggested by Richard McDonald's sketch into a tapered, sophisticated parabola, with tense, springing lines conveying movement and energy."[1] In the same article Hess added this footnote: "Who first suggested the parabola is unclear. Richard McDonald and George Dexter, the sign contractor who fabricated the first arches, recalled that Dexter came up with the idea and added them to the plans. Charles Fish, who did the working drawings and aided Meston in the design, attributes the idea to his familiarity with the form from a school project in which he used structural parabolas for a hangar. The form was one of many advanced engineering solutions, including folded plate roofs, that were in common currency."[1]
The first franchised outlet bearing Meston's design opened in May 1953 in Phoenix, Arizona. Subsequent franchisees of the McDonald brothers were also required to use Meston's design, although Meston adapted the plans for each to the conditions and building codes of each site.[1]
In 1962, seeking to upgrade its image, the company sought a new logo. Fred Turner sketched a stylized "V", but the company's head of engineering and design, Jim Schindler, extended the "V" into an "M" resembling a McDonald's store viewed from an angle, with a red isosceles trapezoid "roof" serving as background for lettering.[2]
While McDonald's dropped the physical arches from nearly all of its restaurants in the 1960s[citation needed], the Golden Arches have remained in the logo, and as a commonly understood term for the company. This was partially due to Louis Cheskin's argument that the arches, which he likened to "mother McDonald's breasts", had "Freudian applications to the subconscious mind of the consumer and were great assets in marketing McDonald's food."[3]
Alan Hess summarized the arch's origin in Googie architecture and ultimate significance as follows:
The arch was conceived by businessman Richard McDonald, an untrained designer with no knowledge of erudite architectural examples. His intent was pragmatic: to be noticed. This determined its scale, position, and simple shape visible over long distances following the precedent of earlier drive-ins with which he was familiar. To McDonald, the arch was an arbitrary form, without symbolic or historic associations, which he hoped would come to symbolize McDonald's. The arches' position implies no traditional use of the arch as an entry, nor are they structural. The architect delineated this formal concept determined by the client in the energetic lines and machine-like surfaces of a popular commercial vernacular style current in the 1940s and 1950s ... Meston's design proved successful as design and icon because of, not in spite of, its commercialism.[1]
Variations
All restaurants operated by McDonald's Canada use a variation of the Golden Arches, which features a maple leaf inserted into the centre of the Golden Arches; subsuming a Canadian national symbol into its corporate symbol.[4]
The McDonald's arches in Sedona, Arizona, were made turquoise when the yellow color had been deemed by government officials to be contrasting too much against the scenic red rock.[5]
As of 2019, seven McDonald's signs only have one arch, including locations in Magnolia, New Jersey; Winter Haven, Florida; Montrose, Colorado; and McDonald's sign in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.[6]
The McDonald's restaurant at 610 Del Monte Ave., Monterey, California, has black arches.[7]
The McDonald's in North Scottsdale, Arizona, on 18241 N Pima Rd also has black arches.[8][better source needed]
The McDonald's restaurant at 2172 Sunset Blvd. in Rocklin, California, has dark red arches.[9][better source needed]
The restaurant at Champs-Elysées in Paris, France, includes a neon McDonald's sign with white arches. Also, a recently[when?] built McDonald's in Bruges, Belgium, has white arches.[10]
In 2017, McDonald's China Division was renamed to Golden Arches while keeping the restaurant's name as McDonald's.[11] McDonald's spokesperson explained that the rename was due to McDonald's Corporation sold bulk of its China Division to CITIC Group and Carlyle Capital.[12]
In 2018 and again in 2019, McDonald's turned the arches upside down on its social media accounts in celebration of International Women's Day, changing the "M" to a "W." A McDonald's franchise operated by Patricial Williams in Lynwood, California, also flipped the arches on its sign.[13][14] This prompted a mild backlash, with some arguing that the move was hypocritical due to the chain's underpaying of employees, and others observing that the "M" in the logo could just as easily stand for "men" as it could for "McDonald's."[15]
Influence
The term "Golden Arches" is sometimes used as metonym, symbolizing capitalism and globalization.[16][17] In phrases such as the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention", it is asserted that "No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's". McDonald's Golden Arches is used as it is one of the more prominent American corporations that have become global in their reach (along with Coca-Cola and Nike).
The shape and color of the prominent space frame trusses used in the heavy-lift ship VB-10,000 have led some to nickname it the "Golden Arches".[18][19][20]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Arches
In Canaanite mythology there were twin mountains, Targhizizi and Tharumagi, which hold the firmament up above the earth-circling ocean, thereby bounding the earth. W. F. Albright, for example, says that El Shaddai is a derivation of a Semitic stem that appears in the Akkadian shadû ('mountain') and shaddā'û or shaddû'a ('mountain-dweller'), one of the names of Amurru. Philo of Byblos states that Atlas was one of the elohim, which would clearly fit into the story of El Shaddai as "God of the Mountain(s)". Harriet Lutzky has presented evidence that Shaddai was an attribute of a Semitic goddess, linking the epithet with Hebrew šad, 'breast', as "the one of the breast". The idea of two mountains being associated here as the breasts of the Earth, fits into the Canaanite mythology quite well. The ideas of pairs of mountains seem to be quite common in Canaanite mythology. The late period of this cosmology makes it difficult to tell what influences (Roman, Greek, or Hebrew) may have informed Philo's writings.
Mythology
In the Baal Cycle, Ba'al Hadad is challenged by and defeats Yam using two magical weapons (called "Driver" and "Chaser") made for him by Kothar-wa-Khasis. Afterward, with the help of Athirat and Anat, Ba'al persuades El to allow him a palace. El approves, and the palace is built by Kothar-wa-Khasis. After the palace is constructed, Ba'al gives forth a thunderous roar out of the palace window and challenges Mot. Mot enters through the window and swallows Ba'al, sending him to the underworld. With no one to give rain, there is a terrible drought in Ba'al's absence. The other deities, especially El and Anat, are distraught that Ba'al had been taken to the underworld. Anat goes to the underworld, attacks Mot with a knife, grinds him up into pieces, and scatters him far and wide. With Mot defeated, Ba'al is able to return and refresh the Earth with rain.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanite_religion
Clan Stewart (Gaelic: Stiùbhart) is a Scottish Highland and Lowland clan. The clan is recognised by Court of the Lord Lyon; however, it does not have a clan chief recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Because the clan has no chief it can be considered an armigerous clan; however, the Earls of Galloway are now considered to be the principal branch of this clan,[3] and the crest and motto of The Earls of Galloway's arms are used in the Clan Stewart crest badge. The Court of the Lord Lyon recognises two other Stewart/Stuart clans, Clan Stuart of Bute and Clan Stewart of Appin. Stuart of Bute is the only one of the three clans at present which has a recognised chief.[4]
History
Origins of the Clan
The Stewarts who became monarchs of Scotland were descended from a family who were seneschals (stewards) of Dol in Brittany, France.[5] After the Norman conquest of England, the Stewarts acquired estates in England as the FitzAlan family, also Earls of Arundel.[5] Walter Flaad or Walter fitz Alan the steward came to Scotland when David I of Scotland claimed his throne.[5] It is from their office as stewards that the surname Stewart came.[6] Walter was created High Steward of Scotland and was granted large estates in Renfrewshire and East Lothian.[5] Walter was one of the commanders of the royal army which defeated Somerled of the Isles (ancestor of Clan Donald) at the Battle of Renfrew in 1164.[5] (See: Walter fitz Alan).
Scottish-Norwegian War
Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland, also known as Alexander of Dundonald Castle, commanded the Scottish army at the Battle of Largs in 1263 against Viking invaders.[7][8][9]
Wars of Scottish Independence
During the Wars of Scottish Independence, James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland swore fealty to Edward I of England.[5] However, he later sided with Robert the Bruce and William Wallace in the struggle for Scottish independence.[5]
Royal House of Stewart
Main article: House of Stuart
Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland married Marjory, daughter of king Robert the Bruce.[5] When Robert's son, David II of Scotland died, he was succeeded by Walter Stewart's son, Robert II of Scotland.[5] King Robert II had many sons; the eldest, John, succeeded to the throne of Scotland as Robert III of Scotland.[5] The royal line of male Stewarts was uninterrupted until the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots.[5] As a family the Stewarts (Stuarts) held the throne of Scotland and later England until the death of Anne, Queen of Great Britain in 1714.[5]
Albany Stewarts
Main article: Duke of Albany
The Dukedom of Albany is a peerage title that was bestowed on some younger sons in the Scottish and later the British royal family, particularly in the House of Stuart. Robert II's third son was Robert Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany, who was Regent of Scotland during part of the reigns of his father, brother, and nephew James I of Scotland.[5] Robert II's fourth son was Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, who was famed as the Wolf of Badenoch and was responsible for the destruction of Elgin Cathedral.[5]
Main branches of the clan
As the Chief of the Stewarts was also the occupant of the throne, the relationship between the various branches or members of the family differed from the usual ties between clansmen and their Chief.[12] The family did however have their own badge and tartan to distinguish them.[12] Apart from the royal house of Stewart, the three main branches of the clan that settled in the Scottish Highlands during the 14th and 15th centuries were the Stewarts of Appin, Stewarts of Atholl and Stewarts of Balquhidder.[5] Today the Earls of Galloway are considered the senior line of the Clan Stewart.[5]
Stewarts of Appin
Main article: Clan Stewart of Appin
The Stewarts of Appin descend from Sir John Stewart of Bonkyll, son of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland.[5] Sir John's younger son, James Stewart, was killed in 1333 at the Battle of Halidon Hill.[5] His grandson married the heiress of the Lord of Lorne (chief of Clan MacDougall).[5] He was the first Stewart Lord of Lorne.[5] The Stewarts of Appin supported the royalist cause during the Civil War of the 17th century and also supported the deposed Stuart monarchs during the Jacobite rising of 1715 and Jacobite rising of 1745.[5]
Stewarts of Atholl
The Stewarts of Atholl are descended from a son of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, the "Wolf of Badenoch".[5] James Stewart built a strong castle at Garth where he settled at the end of the 14th century.[5] Queen Joanna, widow of James I of Scotland married the Black Knight of Lorne who was descended from the fourth High Steward.[5] Their son was John Stewart of Balveny who was granted the Earldom of Atholl by his half-brother, James II of Scotland.[5] He supported his brother, commanding the royal forces that opposed the rebellion by the Lord of the Isles.[5] The fifth Stewart Earl of Atholl died with no male issue and his daughter married William Murray, second Earl of Tullibardine, who succeeded as Earl of Atholl.[5] Many Stewarts continued to live in the Atholl area with many claiming descent from the Wolf of Badenoch.[5] They were mainly transferred by allegiance to the Murray Earls of Atholl and were known as Athollmen.[5] This is maintained today with the Atholl Highlanders, Europe's only legal private army.[5] General David Stewart of Garth, an Athollman, was an officer in the Black Watch regiment and his book, Sketches of the Highlanders and Highland Regiments, popularized his homeland in Victorian England.[5]
James Stewart of Sticks and Ballechin (d. 1523), illegitimate son of James II, King of Scotland, was the ancestor of several other Stewart families in Atholl, including the Stewarts of Arnagang, Ballechin, Innervack, Killichassie, the later Kynachins, Loch of Clunie, and Stewartfield.[13]
Stewarts of Balquhidder
Main article: Clan Stewart of Balquhidder
Stewarts came to Balqhidder in about 1490, when William Stewart, grandson of the only son of the Duke of Albany to escape the persecution of James I, was appointed ballie of the crown lands of Balquhidder.[5]
Stuarts of Bute
Main article: Clan Stuart of Bute
The chiefs of the Clan Stuart of Bute are descended from Sir John Stewart, illegitimate son of Robert Stewart who reigned as Robert II of Scotland by Moira Leitch (according to tradition).[14]
Earl Castle Stewart
Main article: Earl Castle Stewart
Earl Castle Stewart, in the County Tyrone, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1800 for Andrew Thomas Stewart, 9th Baron Castle Stuart.
The Earls Castle Stewart claim to be the head representatives in the pure male line of the Scottish Royal House of Stuart. They are directly descended from Sir Walter Stewart (died 1425), Keeper of Dumbarton Castle, younger son of Murdoch Stewart, 2nd Duke of Albany, son of Robert Stewart, 1st Duke of Albany,[15] younger son of King Robert II of Scotland.
Castles
Edinburgh Castle one of the most notable castles owned by the Stewarts as the royal family.
Stirling Castle one of the most notable castles owned by the Stewarts as the royal family.
Linlithgow Palace was one of the principal residences of the Stewart and Stuart monarchs of Scotland.
Falkland Palace was acquired by the Stewart family in the 14th century and was owned by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany. It was a royal palace of the Scottish kings.
Castle Stuart was the home of the line of Stuarts who held the title Earl of Moray.
Castle Stalker was a seat of the Stewarts of Appin.
Lochranza Castle was granted to Walter Stewart, the Earl of Menteith in 1262 by Alexander III of Scotland.[16]
Dundonald Castle built in the 13th century by Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland. Used by the Stewart monarchs.
Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh, castle of the royal Stuarts.
Doune Castle built in the 14th century by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany.
Earl's Palace, Kirkwall built by Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney.
Bishop's Palace, Kirkwall originally a Norwegian fort, ownership later passed to Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney.
Scalloway Castle built by Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney.
Earl's Palace, Birsay built by Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney.
Crookston Castle has been owned by various branches of the Clan Stewart.
Rothesay Castle was built by the Stewarts at the beginning of the 13th century.
Drumin Castle was the home of Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan (the Wolf of Badenoch).
Ardvorlich Castle, stronghold of the Stuarts of Balquhidder
Garth Castle, stronghold of the Clan Stewart.
Grandtully Castle, stronghold of the Clan Stewart.
Garlies Castle, stronghold of the Clan Stewart.
Castle Campbell, originally called Castle Gloom, it passed by right of marriage to the Campbells who changed the name to Castle Campbell by an Act of Parliament in 1489.
Tartans
[icon]
This section needs expansion with: the other Stewart/Stuart tartans. You can help by adding to it. (March 2020)
The usual tartan for the Stewarts or Stuarts is a red coloured pattern known as the Royal Stuart Tartan.[12] According to historian Henry James Lee the effect of a large body of men crossing a hill in the red Stuart tartan, contrasting with the dark coloured heath has been described "as if the hill were on fire".[12]
Tartan image Notes
Clan Stewart tartan, as published in 1842 in the dubious Vestiarium Scoticum.
See also
Armorial of the House of Stuart
Scottish clan
Armigerous clan
High Steward of Scotland
House of Stuart
Marquess of Bute Crichton-Stuart of Bute
Earl of Galloway Stewart of Galloway
Earl of Moray Stuart of Moray
Earl of Traquair Stewart of Traquair
Earl of Wharncliffe
Earl Castle Stewart Stewart in County Tyrone
Viscount Stuart of Findhorn
Lord Ochiltree
Lord Avondale
Lord Methven
Lord Blantyre
Baron Stuart de Decies
Baron Stuart de Rothesay
Baron Stuart of Wortley
Duke of Albany
Duke of Monmouth James Scott, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II, attainted
Duke of Buccleuch and Duke of Queensberry Descendants of James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth
Duke of Cleveland and Duke of Southampton Descendants of Charles FitzRoy, an illegitimate son of Charles II, extinct
Duke of Grafton Descendants of Henry FitzRoy, an illegitimate son of Charles II
Duke of St Albans Descendants of Charles Beauclerk, an illegitimate son of Charles II
Duke of Richmond, Duke of Lennox and Duke of Gordon Descendants of Charles Lennox, an illegitimate son of Charles II
Duke of Berwick Descendants of James FitzJames, the illegitimate son of James II, attainted, almost extinct
Duke of Fitz-James Descendants of James FitzJames, the illegitimate son of James II, extinct
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Stewart
TRUMP INTERNATIONAL Golf Links
Aberdeen, Scotland
Set amidst The Great Dunes of Scotland, Trump International Golf Links embraces mile after mile of spectacular Aberdeenshire coastline and guarantees the experience of a lifetime. Against a dramatic North Sea backdrop, our award-winning championship course, designed by renowned links golf architect, Dr. Martin Hawtree, offers breathtaking scenery and an unparalleled test of golf.
Woven through the majestic dunes, the course rises to find panoramic views of the sea and plunges into secluded valleys with each hole boasting distinct characteristics and unique features. Experience the unrivaled beauty, atmosphere and Scottish hospitality of Trump International Golf Links, Scotland – the ultimate golfing destination.
Magnificent 18-hole Links-Style Golf Course
22-acre Driving Range & Extensive Short Game Area
Luxury Five-Star Hotel Accommodations
World-Renowned Clavis Whisky Bar
Set along the coast of the majestic North Sea
Private Membership Opportunities Available
https://www.trump.com/golf/trump-international-golf-links-aberdeen-scotland
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. He won the 2024 election as the nominee of the Republican Party and is now the president-elect of the United States. He is scheduled to begin his second term on January 20, 2025 as the nation’s 47th president and will be just the second president in American history to serve non-consecutive terms, with Grover Cleveland being the first.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump
The Jacobite rising of 1745[a] was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of the British Army was fighting in mainland Europe, and proved to be the last in a series of revolts that began in March 1689, with major outbreaks in 1715 and 1719.
Charles launched the rebellion on 19 August 1745 at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands, capturing Edinburgh and winning the Battle of Prestonpans in September. At a council in October, the Scots agreed to invade England after Charles assured them of substantial support from English Jacobites and a simultaneous French landing in Southern England. On that basis, the Jacobite army entered England in early November, but neither of these assurances proved accurate. On reaching Derby on 4 December, they halted to discuss future strategy.
Similar discussions had taken place at Carlisle, Preston and Manchester and many felt they had gone too far already. The invasion route had been selected to cross areas considered strongly Jacobite in sympathy, but the promised English support failed to materialise. With several government armies marching on their position, they were outnumbered and in danger of being cut off. The decision to retreat was supported by the vast majority, but caused an irretrievable split between Charles and his Scots supporters. Despite victory at Falkirk Muir in January 1746, defeat at Culloden in April ended the rebellion. Charles escaped to France, but was unable to win support for another attempt, and died in Rome in 1788.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobite_rising_of_1745
Alan fitz Flaad (c. 1060 – after 1120) was a Breton knight, probably recruited as a mercenary by Henry I of England in his conflicts with his brothers.[1] After Henry became King of England, Alan became an assiduous courtier and obtained large estates in Norfolk, Sussex, Shropshire, and elsewhere in the Midlands, including the feudal barony and castle of Oswestry in Shropshire.[2][3][4] His duties included supervision of the Welsh border.[5] He is now noted as the progenitor of the FitzAlan family, the Earls of Arundel (1267–1580), and the House of Stuart,[6] although his family connections were long a matter of conjecture and controversy.
Career
Arrival in England
Flaad and his son Alan had come to the favourable notice of King Henry I of England who, soon after his accession, brought Flaad and Alan to England. Eyton, consistently following the theory of the Scottish origins of the Stewarts, thought this was because he was part of the entourage of the Queen, Matilda of Scotland,[7] Round pointed out that Henry had been besieged in Mont-Saint-Michel during his struggle with his brothers,[1] an event which probably occurred in 1091. He is known to have recruited Breton troops at that time and, after his surrender, left the scene via the adjoining regions of Brittany, where Dol is situated. This is a likely explanation for the Bretons in the military retinue he brought to England after the death of William Rufus.
Alan's career in England can be traced largely through his presence as a witness to charters granted by the king during his travels in the first decade or more of his reign. Some of his activities were traced by Eyton, and his researches overlap with William Farrer's calendar of Henry I travel. All of the business in which he took part was ecclesiastical, involving grants, sometimes disputed, to churches and monasteries.
Appearances at court
Alan appeared in Henry I's company at least as early as September 1101, probably at a court held in Windsor Castle,[8] when he witnessed important grants to Norwich Cathedral, confirming its foundation and various endowments.[9][10] Next, he appeared with the king at Canterbury in 1103,[11] where he witnessed the grant of a market to the nuns of Malling Abbey and land acquisitions by Rochester Cathedral, then in the process of rebuilding.[12]
Later that year,[13] or early in the next,[14] Alan was with the king in the New Forest, where the business concerned Andover Priory, a daughter house of the great Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Florent de Saumur.[15] He was probably selected deliberately for this meeting because of his family's close connections with Saumur Abbey: one of his uncles was a monk there.[16] William Rufus had decreed that all chapels in the parish of Andover church should be handed over to the monks or destroyed.[17] One problem at issue revolved around the Foxcote chapel, which was evidently being defended from destruction or annexation by Edward de Foscote, a local landowner. Another seems to have been the administration of justice in the monastic estates.[18] Wihenoc, a monk of St Florent, had initiated an action against the reeve of Andover to have these issues clarified and resolved. Alan Fitz Flaad was called upon to witness a compromise, although Foxcote was among the properties confirmed to the priory by Pope Eugenius III in 1146.[19]
In the autumn of 1105, Alan was called to York to witness confirmation of Ralph Paynel's transfer of his refounded Holy Trinity Priory in York to Marmoutier Abbey, Tours[20][21] and his many endowments of the priory itself.[22][23] At some point, he also witnessed the Roger de Nonant's gift of the church at Totnes and various tithes to the Abbey of Ss Sergius and Bacchus at Angers, a gift earmarked as being for the souls of the royal family.[24]
In May 1110, Alan was at court at Windsor again to witness the king's settlement of a property dispute between Hervey le Breton, Bishop of Ely, and Ranulph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, resolved in favour of the former.[25]
Probably only later did he appear as a witness to a royal command issued to Richard de Belmeis I, the Bishop of London and the king's viceroy in Shropshire, to see that justice was done in the case of a disputed prebend at Morville.[26][27] The collegiate church there had been dissolved and replaced with a priory attached to Shrewsbury Abbey[28] and it seems that the son of one of the prebendaries was resisting the loss of what he regarded as his patrimony. Alan is listed among a group of Shropshire magnates, including Corbets and a Peverel, meeting perhaps during Henry I's 1114 military expedition into Wales. Johnson and Cronne tentatively place the meeting at Holdgate Castle in Shropshire. Eyton dates the event earlier, around the time of a royal expedition to Shropshire in 1109.[29] Whatever the date, it shows Alan as an important member of the Shropshire landowning class.
Territorial magnate
Alan's rapid ascent to wealth and power was a symptom of troubled times. The abortive revolt of Robert de Belleme in 1102 had torn apart the Anglo-Norman system of governing the Welsh Marches. With other Breton friends, Alan had been given forfeited lands in Norfolk and Shropshire, including some which had previously belonged to Robert de Belleme himself.[30] Robert had proved a threat to Henry in both the Welsh Marches and in Normandy, so the king was determined to insert reliable supporters to counterbalance or replace his network of supporters. Alan received more land as he proved his worth. A large portfolio of lands in Shropshire and around Peppering, near Arundel in Sussex, was taken from the holdings of Rainald de Bailleul,[31] ancestor of the House of Balliol, which was also later to provide a king of Scotland. These were lands granted to Rainald by William the Conqueror in recognition of his role as Sheriff of Shropshire. There is no evidence that Rainald or his successor, Hugh, were rebels, and it seems that their lands came to Alan as a consequence of his elevation to the shrievalty of the county. He also gained a stake in the very large estates of Ernulf de Hesdin by marriage to his daughter, Avelina.[32]
Religious grants and foundations
Alan was actively involved in a number of grants to religious institutions. One of the grants to Norwich Cathedral that he witnessed in 1101 concerned advowson of the church at Langham, Norfolk, which "had been Alan's", along with the tithes. It is possible this was a donation by himself.[8] At some point unknown he gave the manor of Eaton near Norwich, to Norwich Cathedral, a gift the king promised "to confirm when Alan comes to my court."[33][34] It is unclear whether this implied the king doubted the existence or the authenticity of the monks' charter:[35] it certainly implies that Alan's attendance at court was to be expected. He also made considerable grants of land to Castle Acre Priory,[36] which lay on the boundary of his Norfolk honour of Mileham.[37]
However, his most important grants in Norfolk were to Sporle Priory, another Benedictine house subject to St Florent de Saumur, which he founded.[38] He gave to the monks of St Florent the church at Sporle, its tithes, a man's landholding, a ploughland in Sporle and another in Mileham, firewood and building timber, and pasture for sheep.[39] The Liber Albus of St Florent mentions that one of the monks present when Alan made the gift was Wihenoc, who initiated the action at Andover.[40] Sporle was later endowed with property in Norfolk villages, including Great and Little Palgrave, where the priory had the church,[19] Great Dunham, Hunstanton and Holme-next-the-Sea.[13]
Alan acquired Upton Magna, the manor in Shropshire on which Haughmond Abbey was later built, as part of the group of estates that had belonged to earlier sheriffs.[41] A note at the beginning of the abbey's cartulary dates the foundation to 1100 but attributes it to Alan's son, William Fitz Alan,[42] which is impossible, as he was not yet born.[43] The existence of a religious community at Haughmond is not definitely attested before a grant of a fishery to what was still a priory by William, around 1135.[44] While Eyton assumed that William was the founder, although at a later date than suggested by the introductory note on the cartulary, the Victoria County History account leaves open the possibility that a small semi-eremitic community existed earlier at Haughmond under Alan's protection, without leaving a written trace.[31]
Alan probably gave many small grants of land or property rights. He gave land at his manor of Stretton-on-Dunsmore in Warwickshire to Burton Abbey.[45] He granted the tithes from his demesne at Burton on Trent to the monks of Léhon in Brittany, where there was a priory subject to the Abbey of Marmoutier: this is known from its confirmation some decades later by his grandson, Alan fitz Jordan.[46] Alan fitz Jordan also confirmed his grandfather's grant to Marmoutier of property at Cuguen,[47] in Brittany, and confirmed or restored Alan fitz Flaad's gift of a mill at Burton to Sele Priory, a small Sussex monastery subordinate to St Florent de Saumur.[13]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_fitz_Flaad
Saumur (French: [somyʁ] ⓘ) is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.
The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur station has rail connections to Tours, Angers, La Roche-sur-Yon and Nantes.
Toponymy
First attested in the Medieval Latin form of Salmuri in 968 AD, the origin of the name is obscure. Albert Dauzat hypothesized a pre-Celtic unattested element *sala 'marshy ground' (cf. Celtic salm 'which jumps and flows'), followed by another unattested element meaning "wall". Many places in Europe seem to contain *Sal(m)- elements, which may share Old European roots.
History
The Dolmen de Bagneux on the south of the town, is 23 meters long and is built from 15 large slabs of the local stone, weighing over 500 tons. It is the largest in France.
The Château de Saumur was constructed in the 10th century to protect the Loire River crossing from Norman attacks after the settlement of Saumur was sacked in 845. The castle, destroyed in 1067 and inherited by the House of Plantagenet, was rebuilt by Henry II of England in the later 12th century. It changed hands several times between Anjou and France until 1589.
Houses in Saumur are constructed almost exclusively of Tuffeau stone. The caves dug to excavate the stone are now often used as commercial wine cellars.[3]
Amyraldism, or the School of Saumur, is a distinctive form of Reformed theology taught by Moses Amyraut at the University of Saumur in the 17th century. Saumur is also the scene for Balzac's novel Eugénie Grandet, written in 1833.
Prior to the French Revolution, Saumur was the capital of the Sénéchaussée de Saumur [fr], a bailiwick which existed until 1793. Saumur was the location of the Battle of Saumur during the Revolt in the Vendée. It hosted a state prison under Napoleon. The town was an equestrian centre with both the military cavalry school from 1783 and later the Cadre Noir equestrian team.
World War II
The Saumur City Hall
The Cessart Bridge
During the Battle of France in World War II, Saumur was the site of the Battle of Saumur (1940); the town and south bank of the Loire were defended by the teenage cadets of the cavalry school.[4]
In 1944 it was the target of the first Tallboy and the fourth Azon bombing raids by Allied planes. On 8/9 June 1944,[5] 5,400 kg (12,000 lb) Tallboy "earthquake" bombs were first used, against a railway tunnel near Saumur. The hastily organized night raid was to stop a planned German Panzer Division, travelling to engage the newly landed allied forces in Normandy. The panzers were expected to use the railway to cross the Loire. No. 83 Squadron RAF illuminated the area with flares from four Avro Lancasters and marked the target at low level by three de Havilland Mosquitos. 25 Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron RAF, the "Dambusters" then dropped their Tallboys from 5,500 m (18,000 ft) with great accuracy. They hit the approaches to the bridge, blocked the railway cutting and one pierced the roof of the tunnel, bringing down a huge quantity of rock and soil which blocked the tunnel, badly delaying the German reinforcements moving towards Normandy, especially 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich.[6][7] The damaged tunnel was quickly dug out to make a deeper cutting, resulting in the need for a second attack.
On 22 June, nine Consolidated B-24 Liberators of the United States Army Air Forces used the new Azon 450 kg (1,000 lb) glide bombs against the Saumur rail bridge;[8] escorted by 43 North American P-51 Mustangs. They failed to destroy the bridge. During the morning of 24 June, 38 American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses with conventional bombs attacked the bridge; escort was provided by 121 of 135 P-51s.[8] The bridge was damaged.
The town of Saumur was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm for its resistance and display of French patriotism during the war.
Main attractions
Saumur is home to the Cadre Noir,[9] the École Nationale d'Équitation (National School of Horsemanship), known for its annual horse shows, as well as the Armoured Branch and Cavalry Training School, the officer school for armored forces (tanks).
There is the national tank museum, the Musée des Blindés, with more than 850 armored vehicles, wheeled or tracked. Most of them are from France, though some come from other countries such as Brazil, Germany, and the Soviet Union, as well as axis and allied vehicles of World War Two.
The annual military Carrousel takes place in July each year, as it has done for over 160 years, with displays of horse cavalry skills, historic and modern military vehicles.[10]
Amongst the most important monuments of Saumur are the great Château de Saumur itself which stands high above the town, and the nearby Château de Beaulieu which stands just 200 metres from the south bank of the Loire River and which was designed by the architect Jean Drapeau. A giant sequoia tree (which is protected) stands in the grounds of Château de Beaulieu. The Dolmen de Bagneux is on the old road going south.
The architectural character of the town owes much to the fact that it is constructed almost exclusively of Tuffeau stone.[11]
The wine industry surrounds Saumur, many utilising the tunnels as cellars with the hundreds of domaines producing white, red, rosé and sparkling wines. Visits to producers and the annual Grandes Tablées du Saumur-Champigny is an annual event held in early August with over 1 km of tables set up in Saumur so people can sample the local foods and wine.[12]
Saumur has a weekly market every Saturday morning with hundreds of stalls open for business in the streets and squares of the old town, from before 8am.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saumur
Did Pope Alexander VI Authorize England’s Colonization of North America?
Matthew P. Cavedon
This article is part of our “200 Years of Johnson v. M’Intosh: Law, Religion, and Native American Lands” series.
If you’d like to check out other articles in this series, click here.
Shortly before Thanksgiving 2016, Episcopalian priest John Floberg held up a copy of Pope Alexander VI’s 1493 papal bull Inter caetera before a crowd of hundreds of protesters and clerics at North Dakota’s Oceti Sakowin Camp. He asked a committee of Indigenous elders to authorize its burning. They did, the paper went up in flames, and the crowd erupted in applause.
Why torch the text? Those present believed, as do many activists today, that Inter caetera was the basis for the English colonization of North America and later U.S. claims to the land formerly held by Indigenous peoples. Early American legal precedent took this view. But that belief is wrong as a matter of history. Inter caetera’s only function in English colonization was as a foil — a symbol of the narrow-minded, theocratic, Catholic Spanish foe. It was emphatically not the historical basis for Anglo-American colonialism.
The English rejected papal authority
The papal bull (named for its official seal, called a “bulla” in Latin) Inter caetera says that Alexander will “give, grant, and assign” to the monarchs of Castile (and, by extension, their Spanish successors) “all islands and mainlands found and to be found” to the west and south of the Azores and Cape Verde, including “all their dominions, cities, camps, places, and villages, and all rights, jurisdictions, and appurtenances” (77). This language’s meaning and legal implications (especially for the Spanish and Portuguese empires) are complex. But Inter caetera did not lend any authority to England’s imperial endeavors, nor those of the other non-Iberian powers.
English imperial adventurism did not begin with Alexander. It began with [King] Henry [VII] skirting or directly contradicting Inter caetera. Henry would not be the last Englishman to do so.
English colonialism in North America can be traced to 1496. King Henry VII (1457-1509) issued letters patent to John Cabot (c.1450-1499) that “were to some degree an attempt to replicate the language” of Inter caetera (5). At the outset, whether Cabot’s voyage was meant to inaugurate a world empire is not clear. He journeyed in a small ship and the only benefit he was given was a monopoly of access against other English land claimants (367). His letters did not assert any prospective title over territories to be discovered. Cabot arguably held nothing more than a license to explore and a promise that Henry would protect his claims if he succeeded in taking any land as a royal vassal.
But the fact that Henry even issued Cabot’s letters illustrates how little authority England ascribed to Inter caetera. According to the bull, only Spain and Portugal were to colonize west of the Azores and Cabo Verde. But Henry authorized Cabot to cross that line. English imperial adventurism did not begin with Alexander. It began with Henry skirting or directly contradicting Inter caetera. Henry would not be the last Englishman to do so (87-88). Within two generations, England had transformed itself from a Catholic kingdom willing to disobey papal decisions to a new Protestant power rejecting papal authority altogether. Leading legal historian James Muldoon recounts that a “representative of Henry VII’s Protestant granddaughter, Elizabeth I (1558-1603), bluntly told Spain’s ambassador that ‘the Pope had no right to partition the world and to give and take kingdoms to whomsoever he pleased’” (98).
In 2018, Canada’s Assembly of First Nations declared that colonization ‘started with the Pope’ and that it deserved ‘the respect of having the Pope himself apologize and support our efforts to rebuild our Nations’
In the early seventeenth century, England first undertook permanent colonization along North America’s eastern shore. To be sure, early colonial charters expressed religious aims. Virginia’s 1606 charter, issued by King James I (r. England 1603-1625), emphasized settlers’ “responsibility to propagate the ‘Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and . . . in time bring the Infidels and Savages . . . to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Government’” (371). Such documents shared evangelical objectives with Inter caetera. But it was Anglicanism headed by the monarchs — not the Catholicism of Alexander and later popes — that England’s colonists were supposed to transplant to the newfound continent.
Englishmen of the day attacked Inter caetera as illegitimate (358). Richard Hakluyt’s 1584 Discourse Concerning Western Planting, for example, lamented the bull as a “most unreasonable and injurious donation” and called Spanish colonists “hellhounds and wolves” who injured Indigenous peoples instead of converting them (199). Hakluyt promoted English colonization as a way of protecting natives and European Protestants alike from Catholic tyranny. Encouraging settlement in Virginia in 1607, Robert Johnson wrote of Inter caetera, “what is this to us? they are blind indeed that stumble here.” In 1629, John Winthrop, who would soon set sail as the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, described Iberian colonies as part of the “kingdome of Antichrist” (that is, the Catholic Church) (28). For early English imperialists, the popes were no benefactors. They were boogeymen.
Early American law’s historical amnesia
Why have many modern commentators forgotten the English disregard for papal authority generally, and Inter caetera specifically? Possibly because some early American courts distorted the history. Inter caetera was cited by early decisions of the highest court of Tennessee, which, at the time, was still a frontier home to both white settlers and Cherokees. The court’s 1826 decision in Cornet v. Winston’s Lessee looked to colonial legal history to make sense of contemporary Indigenous land title. It interpreted previous law in light of what it considered “the prevailing opinions of those days in matters of religion,” positing that popes “dictated the creed of the people” and their “grants of infidel countries were considered binding.” Although “papal pretensions were curbed” by the Protestant Reformation, Europe’s monarchs did not reject the theory of universal papal power. Instead, they claimed such power for themselves because it “could not be safely entrusted in the hands of pontifical ambition.” By this logic, European sovereigns could extinguish Indigenous land titles because non-Christians “were no less subjects of the devil than they had been before; and might justly be deprived of all their possessions.” Oversimplifying centuries of relatively nuanced Catholic canon-law debates about these matters (and varying Protestant receptions of that tradition), Cornet flatly denied rights to non-Christians.
The same court erred again in State v. Foreman (1835), holding that a single “law of Christendom” governed all colonization: “discovery gave title to assume sovereignty over, and to govern the unconverted natives of Africa, Asia, and North and South America.” The court seemed to sense something amiss in ascribing to Protestant England reliance on papal authority, but concluded that the legal history was straightforward anyway:
[T]he principle declared in the fifteenth century as the law of Christendom, that discovery gave title to assume sovereignty over, and to govern the unconverted natives of Africa, Asia, and North and South America, has been recognized as a part of the national law, for nearly four centuries . . . . [I]t is our duty not to shrink from a principle on which the title and value of Louisiana depend, either because modern casuists condemned it, or because the Popes of Rome made, and by the force of their once sovereign authority, established it. Its promulgation may have been a harsh fiat, and it may have been cruelly executed by the Spaniards in Peru and Mexico; yet it is the fiat of our recognition, from the Catholic reign of Henry the Seventh, through every change of religion and government in England, by the colonies up to the revolution, and the States having Indian relations since.
One of the justices on the Foreman court knew better. Concurring in the decision, Justice Nathan Green wrote that “the doctrines avowed in the bulls of the pope . . . were never maintained by the English monarchs, nor practised upon by the colonists from that country; but have been condemned by all Protestant writers.”
But, over time, the Tennessee court’s mistaken view in Cornet and Foreman achieved prominence. Foreman’s author, then-state Chief Justice John Catron, rose to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1837, nominated by fellow Tennessean (and ardent supporter of white expansion into Indian lands) President Andrew Jackson. In 1850, Catron cited Cornet as a persuasive authority in writing the Court’s opinion in Marsh v. Brooks. Even before then, in 1844’s Ladiga v. Roland, the Court had praised Cornet as “able and sound.” Marsh, in turn, was cited as authority (albeit for a different principle) as recently as the Court’s 1985 decision in County of Oneida v. Oneida Indian Nation. Bad history thus became embedded in Indian law precedent.
Activist focus on Inter caetera reflects the distorted legal history
Rev. Floberg’s immolation of Inter caetera was the fruit of decades of scholarship and activism. An early assessment of the bull by a modern Indigenous scholar appears to have been by prominent Lakota academic Vine Deloria Jr. In 1972, he wrote an “Open Letter to the Heads of the Christian Churches in America.” In it, he argued that a “gradual consensus” had emerged among early modern Christians that Indigenous land claims were subject to the rights of European empires. Two years later, Deloria named Inter caetera a part of that consensus. However, he did not see the bull as the font of original imperial evil, noting that it played an important role only in Spanish and Portuguese claims. He even said the “doctrine of discovery” took on life only later, after those two powers signed the bilateral Treaty of Tordesillas.
However, it was not Inter caetera’s destiny to remain a minor part of American historical memory. In 1992, as the quincentennial of Columbus’s first voyage approached, the Traditional Council of Indian Elders and Youth denounced the bull as a foundation of this nation’s unjust legal history (340-341). Two years later, the Onondaga Nation did the same. In 2006, even Deloria wrote that Inter caetera enshrined the belief that “God appointed the Pope to rule over planet earth until the Second Coming of Jesus” and “produced for many of the world’s people a kind of legal limbo where justice could not be served, nor was it ever intended to be served” (106-107).
The Commission relied on the work of Jennifer Reid, who characterized Alexander’s words as ‘the legal foundation upon which North America was colonized.’
Inter caetera’s centrality to activist demands reached a new level in 2007 when a Native American delegation asked the Holy See’s UN mission for a formal response to the bull. Three years later, the mission answered that Inter caetera was a mere “historical remnant” (which is wrong in the Spanish context but, if anything, an exaggeration in the English one) (2). In 2016, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops weighed in, correctly noting the absence of any “clear, universally held set of beliefs about land rights held by all Europeans during the Age of Discovery” (app’x at 6).
But criticism of Inter caetera saw a resurgence in 2015, when the Catholic Church canonized as a saint the Spanish California missionary bishop Junípero Serra, and Canada’s national Truth and Reconciliation Commission declared that English-derived indigenous law arose “smoothly and relatively uncritically” from Catholicism (192). The Commission relied on the work of Jennifer Reid, who characterized Alexander’s words as “the legal foundation upon which North America was colonized.” In 2016, an Indigenous delegation met with Pope Francis and asked him to renounce Inter caetera. In 2017, the Onondaga Nation’s general counsel, Joseph J. Heath, wrote that the bull was “adopted” by the English, so papal rescission would cast doubt on federal Indian law (116-117, 120). In 2018, Canada’s Assembly of First Nations declared that colonization “started with the Pope” and that it deserved “the respect of having the Pope himself apologize and support our efforts to rebuild our Nations” (6).
Criticism of Inter caetera reached its apex during Pope Francis’s 2022 “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in abuses against First Nations, especially in Church-run residential schools. Moments before Francis began to say Mass at a Quebec basilica, protesters unfurled a huge banner reading “RESCIND THE DOCTRINE.” They were following the errors of nineteenth-century American jurists and not the actual historical record in attributing responsibility to the Bishop of Rome for England and France’s colonization of Canada.
Conclusion: Pope Francis should respond with nuance
Ahistorical protests like this nonetheless caught the Vatican’s attention. After Pope Francis returned to Rome, the Canadian bishops announced that they were working with Vatican officials on a new statement “rejecting an entire tradition of legal reasoning.” They should focus on Iberian imperialism and intellectual connections between Christianity and imperialism writ large. Catholic canon law dating from before Inter caetera led to both the bull and other rationales for dominating Indigenous peoples, as Lumbee scholar Robert A. Williams has helpfully observed in correspondence with me. Pope Francis can certainly take responsibility for that history as a whole. But, like contemporary activists, it is important to point out that English colonizers did not see Pope Alexander’s words as an authorization for conquest. As Douglas Lind has recently contended, “injustice cannot be repaired — land claims fairly adjudicated, the case for reparations fully made — unless the precise terms of the American Indians’ dispossession of their lands are understood” (63). The precise terms of England’s colonization of North America had nothing to do with Inter caetera itself. ♦
I thank my wife, Julie, for her loving encouragement as I researched and wrote this paper, and I thank John Witte Jr., Justin Latterell, Robert A. Williams, and the Canopy Forum student staff for their help. None of my academic work would be possible without the generous support of the McDonald Agape Foundation.
https://canopyforum.org/2023/03/21/did-pope-alexander-vi-authorize-englands-colonization-of-north-america/
The Crowns of America
So often one hears politicians quoting the British Constitution as if it actually exists by way of adocumentary privilege — but it does not. It is simply an accumulation of old customs and precedents concerning parliamentary sanctions, together with a number of specific laws defining certain aspects. Since Scotland's 1320 Declaration of Arbroath was nullified by England's Treaty of Union in 1707, the oldest Written Constitution now in force is that of the United States of America. It was adopted in 1787, ratified in 1788, and effected in 1789. In that same year began the French Revolution, which abolished feudalism and ‘absolute’ monarchy in France, thereby influencing politics in much of Europe. In close to 200 years since the Revolution, France and other European States (with Britain as a noticeable exception) have adopted Written Constitutions to protect the rights and liberties of individuals — but who champions these Constitutions on behalf of the people? A popular alternative to absolute monarchy or dictatorship has been found in Republicanism. The Republic of the United States was created primarily to free the emergent nation from the despotism of Britain’s House of Hanover. Yet its citizens tend still to be fascinated by the concept of monarchy. No matter how Republican the spirit, the need for a central symbol remains. Neither a flag nor a president can fulfil this unifying role, for by virtue of the ‘party system’ presidents are always politically motivated. Republicanism was devised on the principle of fraternal status, yet an ideally classless society can never exist in an environment that promotes displays of eminence and superiority by degrees of wealth and possession. For the most part, those responsible for the United States’ morally inspired Constitution were Rosicrucians and Freemasons, notable characters such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Charles Thompson. The last, who designed the Great Seal of the United States of America, was a member of Franklin’s American Philosophical Society — a counterpart of Britain’s Invisible College. The imagery of the Seal is directly related to alchemical tradition, inherited from the allegory of the ancient Egyptian Therapeutate. The eagle, the olive branch, the arrows, and the pentagrams are all occult symbols of opposites: good and evil, male and female, war and peace, darkness and light. On the reverse (as repeated on the dollar bill) is the truncated pyramid, indicating the loss of the Old Wisdom, severed and forced underground by the Church establishment. But above this are the rays of ever-hopeful light, incorporating the ‘all-seeing eye’, used as a symbol during the French Revolution.
In establishing their Republic, the Americans could still not escape the ideal of a parallel monarchy — a central focus of non-political, patriotic attachment. George Washington was actually offered kingship, but declined because he had no immediately qualifying heritage. Instead he turned to the Royal House of Stuart. In November 1782 four Americans arrived at the San Clemente Palazzo in Florence, the residence of Charles III Stuart in exile. They were Mr Galloway of Maryland, two brothers named Sylvester from Pennsylvania, and Mr Fish, a lawyer from New York. They were taken to Charles Edward by his secretary, John Stewart. Also present was the Hon Charles Hervey-Townshend (later Britain’s ambassador to The Hague) and the Prince's future wife, Marguerite, Comtesse de Massillan. The interview — which revolved around the contemporary transatlantic dilemma — is doctimented in the US Senate archives and in the Manorwater Papers. Writers such as Sir Compton Mackenzie and Sir Charles Petrie have also described the occasion when Charles Edward Stuart was invited to become ‘King of the Americans’. Some years earlier, Charles had been similarly approached by the men of Boston, but once the War of Independence was over George Washington sent his own envoys. It would have been a great irony for the House of Hanover to lose the North American colonies to the Stuarts. But Charles declined the offer for a number of reasons, not the least of which was his lack of a legitimate male heir at the time. He knew that without a due successor the United States could easily fall to Hanover again at his death, thereby defeating the whole Independence effort. Since those days, many other radical events have taken place: the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, two major World Wars, and a host of changes as countries have swapped one style of government for another. Meanwhile, civil and international disputes continue just as they did in the Middle Ages. They are motivated by trade, politics, religion, and whatever other banners are flown to justify the constant struggle for territorial and economic control. The Holy Roman Empire has disappeared, the German Reichs have failed, and the British Empire has collapsed. The Russian Empire fell to Communism, which has itself been disgraced and crumbled to ruin, while Capitalism teeters on the very brink of acceptability. With the Cold War now ended, America faces a new threat to her superpower status from the Pacific countries. In the meantime, the nations of Europe band together in what was once a seemingly well conceived economic community, but which is already suffering from the same pressures of individual custom and national sovereignty that beset the Holy Roman Empire. Whether nations are governed by military-style regimes or elected parliaments, by autocrats or democrats, and whether formally described as monarchist, socialist or republican, the net product is always the same: the few control the fate of the many. In situations of dictatorship this is a natural experience — but it should not be the case in a democratic institution based on the principle of majority vote. True democracy is government by the people for the people, in either direct or representative form, ignoring class distinctions and tolerating minority views. The American Constitution sets out an ideal for this form of democracy ... but, in line with other nations, there is always a large sector of the community that is not represented by the party in power. Because presidents and prime ministers are politically tied, and because political parties take their respective turns at individual helms, the inevitable result is a lack of continuity for the nations concerned. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is no reliable ongoing institution to champion the civil rights and liberties of people in such conditions of ever-changing leadership. Britain does, at least, retain a monarchy, but it is a politically constrained monarchy, and as such is ineffectual in performing its role as guardian of the nation. The United States, unlike Britain, has a Written Constitution — but has no one with the power to uphold its principles against successive governments who determinedly pursue their own politically vested interests. Is there an answer to the anomaly — an answer that could bring not just a ray of hope but a shining light for the future? There certainly is, but its energy relies on those in governmental service appreciating their roles as ‘representatives’ of society rather than presuming to stand at the head of society. Alongside the political administration, an appointed Constitutional champion would be empowered to keep check on any potential disparities and infringements of the Constitution that might occur. This can be achieved in the manner first envisaged by George Washington and the American Fathers. Their original plan was for a democratic Parliament combined with a working Constitutional Monarchy bound not to Parliament or the Church but to the people and their Written Constitution. In such an environment, sovereignty would ultimately rest with the people, while the monarch (as an operative Guardian of the Realm) would pledge an ‘Oath of Fealty to the Nation’ — not the reverse, as in Britain’s case, whereby the nation pays homage to the sovereignty of Parliament and the monarchy. The unfulfilled ambition of the American Fathers was that government ministers should be elected by the majority vote of the people, but that their actions be directed within the boundaries of the Constitution. Because that Constitution belongs to the people, its champion — as George Washington perceived — should be a monarch whose obligation is not to politics or religion but to the sovereign nation. Through the natural system of heredity (being born and bred to the task), such a Constitutional guardian would provide an ‘ongoing continuity’ of public representation through successive governments. In this regard both monarchs and ministers would be servants of the Constitution on behalf of the Community of the Realm. Such a concept of moral government lies at the very heart of the Grail Code, and it remains within the bounds of possibility for every civilized Nation State. A leading British politician recently claimed that it was not his job to be popular! Not so—a popular minister is a trusted minister, and holding a deserved electoral trust facilitates the democratic process. No minister can honestly expound an ideal of equality in society when that minister is deemed to possess some form of prior lordship over society. Class structure is always decided from above, never from below. It is therefore for those on self-made pedestals to be seen to kick them aside in the interests of harmony and unity. Jesus was not in the least humbled when he washed his Apostles’ feet; he was raised to the realm of a true Grail King — the realm of equality and princely service. This is the eternal ‘Precept of the Sangréal’, and it is expressed in Grail lore with the utmost clarity: only by asking ‘Whom does the Grail serve?’ will the wound of the Fisher King be healed, and the Wasteland returned to fertility.
pages 438-443 "The Sangreal Today"
Bloodline of the Holy Grail by Laurence Gardner
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zsH4O_ls0IgWEYXLXWCo7I3IUi32FJhq/view?usp=sharing
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792)
The main influence on the education and early reign of George III, John Stuart, Earl of Bute, was briefly prime minister in the 1760s and quickly became one of the most vilified men in the British world. Burned in effigy (often represented by a jackboot) from London to Virginia, the Scottish Lord Bute was a powerful symbol of pervasive fears that hidden forces behind the throne were bent on corrupting the British constitution.
Bute was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on May 25, 1713, the oldest son of James, 2nd Earl of Bute, and Lady Anne Campbell, the daughter of the 1st Duke of Argyll. He was educated at Eton College and the University of Leiden. In 1737 Bute was elected one of the 16 Scottish representative peers in the House of Lords, but he rarely attended its sessions. He left Scotland for London in 1745 shortly after the outbreak of the Jacobite rebellion. There he became close to Frederick, the Prince of Wales, who was at the center of the political opposition to George II (Frederick's father). After Frederick's death in 1751, Bute became principal tutor to his oldest son, who would become George III.
It would be difficult to overstate Bute's influence on George III. Bute designed the curriculum that shaped the future king's thoughts on history, law, and politics, relying heavily on works such as a manuscript version of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (not published until 1765) and Henry St. John Bolingbroke's The Idea of the Patriot King (1740). Bolingbroke's idealistic and highly flawed work largely ignores the practical challenges posed by the British constitution and its recent history, but it framed George III's perspective on his broader role as king. Bolingbroke stressed that a king's decisions should be guided by the interests of the nation, without regard to the politics of the day, and a king should choose ministers for their moral virtue rather than more mundane characteristics such as their ability to maintain a majority in the House of Commons. Bute's education plan for the future king led to an unsuccessful attempt in 1752 by Horace Walpole and other Whig leaders to have him removed from the position.
Walpole's fears proved well-founded when George III became king on October 25, 1760, and enacted ideas which resulted in an almost complete transformation — and destabilization — of British politics. It took only two days for George III to appoint Bute to the Privy Council; five months later Bute was named Secretary of State for the Northern Department. His rapid elevation caused confusion in the Cabinet, especially among William Pitt and his ministerial colleagues, who were focused on vigorously prosecuting the Seven Years War against France. The growing divide between Pitt and Bute reached a crisis point over strategy against Spain and over the terms of peace with France (the King and Bute wanted a quick end to the conflict, rather than a comprehensive one). Pitt consequently lost his hold over the Cabinet and resigned his office on October 5, 1761. Pitt's successor, the Duke of Newcastle, followed suit on May 26, 1762, over a dispute with the King and the isolationist Bute about whether to continue a subsidy to Prussia. The very next day, the King seized this opportunity and appointed Bute as First Lord of the Treasury and prime minister. Bute's 317 days at the head of the government would be among the most tumultuous of the century and lay much of the groundwork for the constitutional disputes which culminated in the American War for Independence.
Bute was immediately blasted by the London press as a conniving Scot and a Jacobite-leaning Tory who cared nothing for protecting the British constitution and its hard-won victories in the costly war. The Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War was largely Bute's handiwork — and however skillfully negotiated and advantageous it was to Britain in hindsight, at the time it was derided by leaders such as Pitt and quickly turned into a political disaster for Bute. With the enormously popular Pitt now in opposition, the treaty became rich fodder for political writers such as John Wilkes. Wilkes' North Briton was launched specifically to attack Bute and the peace, and its writings helped establish the theme of constitutional corruption that fueled the political fears of radical Whigs in America and Britain. By the spring of 1763, Bute was the most hated man on both sides of the Atlantic and was attacked — often physically — almost everywhere he went. His decision to impose a cider tax in England led to widespread rioting. He also wanted to tax Americans to raise further revenue to pay for a permanent British army presence in the colonies (the Sugar Act and Stamp Act were eventually put forward by Bute's protégé and successor as Prime Minister, George Grenville).
Recognizing that his continuation in office would only make matters worse for the government, Bute resigned on April 8, 1763, and claimed to withdraw from political life. Rumors soon circulated that he remained George III's chief advisor, perhaps more influential out of office than he was in it. Considerable damage was done to British political culture when the rumors turned out to be true. Grenville demanded Bute's removal from the King's court, and the situation sparked rampant speculation that ministerial policies were the product of an unconstitutional conspiracy surrounding the throne. Pitt's return to office in 1766 effectively ended Bute's relationship with the King, although the myth that the constitution was being actively undermined by secret forces would taint transatlantic politics throughout the American Revolution, and Bute would remain a symbol of that corruption in satirical prints through the 1780s.
Except for a trip to Italy, Bute spent his long retirement from public life at his estate in Hampshire and used his considerable wealth to support Scotland's universities, including several endowed chairs at the University of Edinburgh. He also wrote a number of works on botany. One of his sons, Charles Stuart, fought for Britain in the American War for Independence from 1775 to 1779, eventually commanding the 26th Regiment of Foot. Bute died in London on March 10, 1792, and is buried in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute.
https://www.ouramericanrevolution.org/index.cfm/people/view/pp0049
Trump vows new Canada, Mexico, China tariffs that threaten global trade
By Costas Pitas
November 26, 2024 2:29 AM PST Updated 4 days ago
Summary
Trump: 25% tariff on Mexico, Canada over fentanyl, migration
For China: 'an additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs'
China: No one will win a trade war
Nov 25 (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump on Monday pledged big tariffs on the United States' three largest trading partners - Canada, Mexico and China - detailing how he will implement campaign promises that could trigger trade wars.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, said he would impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico until they clamped down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and migrants crossing the border, in a move that would appear to violate a free-trade deal.
Trump separately outlined "an additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs" on imports from China. It was not entirely clear what this would mean for China as he has previously pledged to end China's most-favored-nation trading status and slap tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60% - much higher than those imposed during his first term.
The two posts on Truth Social represent some of Trump's most specific comments on how he will implement his economic agenda since winning the Nov. 5 election on promises to "put America first".
"On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders," Trump said.
The U.S. accounted for more than 83% of exports from Mexico in 2023 and 75% of Canadian exports.
The tariffs may also spell trouble for overseas companies like the many Asian auto and electronics manufacturers that use Mexico as a low-cost production gateway for the U.S. market.
Trump's threatened new tariffs would appear to violate the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade. The deal which Trump signed into law took effect in 2020 and continued the largely duty-free trade between the three countries.
Canada and the United States at one point imposed sanctions on each others' products during the rancorous talks that eventually led to USMCA. Trump will have the opportunity to renegotiate the agreement in 2026, when a "sunset" provision will force either a withdrawal or talks on changes to the pact.
After issuing his tariff threat, Trump held a conversation with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in which they discussed trade and border security, a Canadian source familiar with the situation said.
"It was a good discussion and they will stay in touch," the source said.
Trump could be counting on the threat of tariffs to prompt an early renegotiation of USMCA, said William Reinsch, a former president of the National Foreign Trade Council.
"This strikes me more as a threat than anything else," Reinsch said. "I guess the idea is if you keep hitting them in the face, eventually they'll surrender."
Mexico's lower house leader Ricardo Monreal, a member of the ruling Morena party, urged "the use of bilateral, institutional mechanisms to combat human, drug and arms trafficking."
"Escalating trade retaliation would only hurt the people's pocketbooks and is far from solving underlying problems," he said in a post on social media platform X.
Trump's announcement sparked a dollar rally. It rose 1% against the Canadian dollar and 1.6% against the Mexican peso , while share markets in Asia fell, as did European bourses in early trade. S&P 500 futures were little changed.
CHINA: NO ONE WINS TRADE WARS
On China, Trump accused Beijing of not taking strong enough action to stop the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S. from Mexico.
"Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America," Trump said.
A Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington said China believed that China-U.S. economic and trade cooperation was mutually beneficial. "No one will win a trade war or a tariff war," Liu Pengyu said.
The embassy also cited steps it said China had taken since a 2023 U.S.-China meeting after which Beijing agreed it would stem the export of items related to the production of the opioid fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States.
"All these prove that the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality," the spokesperson said.
Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that China was willing to continue anti-drug cooperation with the U.S. on the basis of "equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect."
"The U.S. side should cherish China's goodwill and safeguard the hard-won sound situation of Sino-US drug control cooperation," the ministry said.
Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, speaking at a supply chain expo in Beijing on Tuesday, said China was ready to work with other countries to build an open world economic system and maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains.
China's economy is in a vulnerable position amid a prolonged property downturn, debt risks and weak domestic demand.
In the run-up to the Nov. 5 election, Trump floated plans for blanket tariffs of 10% to 20% on virtually all imports. He also said he would put tariffs as high as 200% on cars coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mexico's finance ministry said of Trump's tariff pledge: "Mexico is the United States' top trade partner, and the USMCA provides a framework of certainty for national and international investors."
Economists say Trump's overall tariff plans, likely his most consequential economic policy, would push U.S. import duties back up to 1930s levels, stoke inflation, collapse U.S.-China trade, draw retaliation and drastically reorder supply chains.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-promises-25-tariff-products-mexico-canada-2024-11-25/
MAGA Make America Great Again: a presidential campaign slogan used by Donald J. Trump.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/maga
PRIESTHOOD OF MENDES
These are the individuals who act as spokespersons for the philosophy of the Church of Satan, which include the titles of “Priest”/“Priestess,” “Magister”/“Magistra,” “Magus”/“MAGA.” Members of the Priesthood make up the Council of Nine, which is the ruling body of the organization, appointed by and responsible to the High Priest/Priestess. The Order of the Trapezoid consists of the individuals who assist in the administration of the Church of Satan. Members of our Priesthood are people of accomplishment in the real world—they have mastered skills and have won peer recognition, which is how they have attained their position—“as above, so below.” They are “movers and shakers” who are the core of our movement. While expected to be experts in communicating our philosophy, they are not required to speak on our behalf and they may even choose to keep their affiliation and rank secret, in order to better serve their personal goals, as well as those of our organization. Thus, you may (even as a member), encounter members of our Priesthood and never know it.
Membership in the Priesthood is by invitation only. The old truism “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it” is certainly highly pertinent to our Priesthood. Words to the wise: Do not ask “How do I become a Priest?”
https://www.churchofsatan.com/hierarchy/
Politics
March 14, 2008
Is There Satanic Symbolism in the GOP’s Logo?
Mother Jones
Something’s wrong with the Republican logo. The stars are upside down. Five-sided stars that point upwards—like those on the Democratic donkey and the American flag—traditionally symbolize the forces of good. An overturned pentagram, however, represents the goat’s head of Satan and the forces of evil—and there are three on the Republicans’ elephant.
The GOP’s stars weren’t always upside down; some say the change occurred around 2000. When I called up the RNC to ask about the logo’s history, staffers invariably said, “we’ll have to get back to you on that” and never did. “Huh, that’s interesting,” said one, who clearly hadn’t noticed Satan hiding in plain view.
“I have a feeling some neo-pagan democratic designed this logo,” wrote a commenter on the conservative web site Free Republic. Besides like-minded rants that the design is a huge slap in the Grand Old Party’s face, some online chat-room goers speculated that the inverted stars are linked to secret society symbolism.
In any case, the stars have not only turned for the Republicans: A Hillary Clinton website featured a photo of an American flag with upside down pentagrams at the time of the New Hampshire primary.
—Caroline E. Winter
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/03/there-satanic-symbolism-gops-logo/
On March 17, 1970, a curious article appeared in the Oakland Tribune. It was a report of an interview with Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder and "High PRIEST" of the "Church of Satan" in San Francisco, and the author of the Satanic Bible. Members of the Church of Satan wear an inverted pentagram, or pentacle (a well-known 'Satanic' symbol) with a a goathead on the inside of the circle. The cover of The Satanic Bible also bears an inverted pentagram, or satanic pentacle.
The Oakland Tribune article reported that LaVey had become " a favorite speaker at the University of San Francisco." When asked about his engagements at that university, LaVey proudly replied, "the Jesuits are my greatest audience." In case the reader was not already aware, the University of San Francisco is a renowned Jesuit institution of higher learning.
The statement by Satanist Anton LaVey about his work at this Jesuit University is no mystery. We invite the reader to give attention to this most audacious passage found in the writings of the Jesuit scholar Anthony Escobar. In his Secret Instructions, Escobar treats to what is perhaps the most innovative principle of Jesuitism (Roma Catholicism): "IT IS LAWFUL... TO MAKE USE OF THE SCIENCE ACQUIRED THROUGH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE DEVIL., PROVIDED THE PRESERVATION AND USE OF THAT KNOWLEDGE DO NOT DEPEND UPON THE DEVIL, FOR THE KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD IN ITSELF, AND THE SIN BY WHICH IT WAS ACQUIRED HAS GONE BY." Such is the effrontery of the Jesuits; such are their nostrums-my, my, what intriguing doctrines these Jesuits have-these men will sell their souls on eBay."
pages 73-74
chapter 6
"SCIENCE ACQUIRED THROUGH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE DEVIL"
Codeword Barbelon book One by P.D. Stuart
I began by attending Fordham University in the Bronx, mostly because I wanted to be close to home. I got along very well with the Jesuits who ran the school, but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in. At the time, if you were going to make a career in business, Wharton was the place to go. Harvard Business School may produce a lot of CEOs—guys who manage public companies— but the real entrepreneurs all seemed to go to Wharton: Saul Steinberg, Leonard Lauder, Ron Perelman—the list goes on and on."
Donald Trump The Art of the Deal
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DLcbnLrl6moQT7nGj1JitG6AiQ6qgK0y/view?usp=sharing
University of Scranton welcomes President Biden
The university has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in red and blue lights.
Author: WNEP Web Staff
Published: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021
Updated: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021
SCRANTON, Pa. — In preparation for President Joe Biden's visit, a university lit up their lights in his honor.
The University of Scranton has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in blue and red with the number 46 prominently displayed to welcome the 46th president."
University of Scranton welcomes President Biden | wnep.com
https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/university-of-scranton-welcomes-president-biden-gateway-lights/523-cdba68b1-822b-4747-94be-4cd7e4de9d67
"His son, Hunter Biden, 38, is a longtime federal lobbyist for the Jesuit university located in his father's hometown, Scranton PA. According to federal disclosures, Hunter Biden has been earning about $80,000 a year since 2006 to lobby for this university. Senator Biden himself has lectured at the Jesuit University of Scranton, and received an honorary degree from the same university, in 1976."
Codeword Barbelon
by P.D. Stuart
The Temple of Set is an occult initiatory order founded in 1975. A new religious movement and form of Western esotericism, the Temple espouses a religion known as Setianism, whose practitioners are called Setians. This is sometimes identified as a form of Satanism, although this term is not often embraced by Setians and is contested by some academics.
The Temple was established in the United States in 1975 by Michael Aquino, an American political scientist, military officer, and a high-ranking member of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. Dissatisfied with the direction in which LaVey was taking the Church, Aquino resigned and – according to his own claim – embarked on a ritual to invoke Satan, who revealed to him a sacred text called The Book of Coming Forth by Night. According to Aquino, in this work Satan revealed his true name to be that of Set, which had been the name used by his followers in ancient Egypt. Aquino was joined in establishing the Temple by a number of other dissatisfied members of LaVey's Church, and soon various Setian groups were established across the United States.
Setians believe that Set is the one real god and that he has aided humanity by giving them a questioning intellect, the "Black Flame", which distinguishes them from other animal species. Set is held in high esteem as a teacher whose example is to be emulated but he is not worshipped as a deity. Highly individualistic in basis, the Temple promotes the idea that practitioners should seek self-deification and thus attain an immortality of consciousness. Setians believe in the existence of magic as a force which can be manipulated through ritual, however the nature of these rituals is not prescribed by the Temple. Specifically, Aquino described Setian practices as "black magic", a term which he defines idiosyncratically.
Following initiation into the Temple, a Setian can proceed along a series of six degrees, each of which requires greater responsibilities to the group; as a result, most members remain in the first two degrees. Governed by a high priest or high priestess and a wider Council of Nine, the Temple is also divided into groups known as pylons, through which Setians can meet or correspond in order to advance their magical work in a particular area. Pylons of the Temple are now present in the United States, Australia, and Europe, with estimates placing the Temple's membership between 200 and 500.
Definition
The Temple of Set is a new religious movement,[1] and draws upon earlier forms of Western esotericism.[2] Among academic scholars of religious studies, there has been some debate as to whether the Temple of Set can be characterized as "Satanism" or not. The religious studies scholars Asbjorn Dyrendal, Massimo Introvigne, James R. Lewis, and Jesper Aa. Petersen describes the Temple of Set as a Satanic group, despite its reluctance to use the term "Satanism", because it is an offshoot of the Church of Satan which continues to use satanic mythology.[3][4] Conversely, the scholar Kennet Granholm argued that it should not be considered a form of Satanism because it does not place an emphasis on the figure of Satan. Granholm acknowledged that it was an "actor in the Satanic milieu" and part of the wider left-hand path group of esoteric traditions.[5] He suggested that it could also be seen as a form of "Post-Satanism", thereby continuing to reflect its historical origins within religious Satanism.[6]
The Temple of Set is far more rooted in esoteric ideas than the Church of Satan had been.[7] It has thus been termed "Esoteric Satanism", a term used to contrast it with the "Rational Satanism" found in LaVeyan Satanism.[8] Accordingly, it has been labelled the "intellectual wing of esoteric Satanism",[9] with the Temple presenting itself as an intellectual religion.[10] Aquino possessed a P.h.D. in political science and this formal education was reflected in the way that he presented his arguments, in which he draws broadly upon Western philosophy and science.[11]
History
Foundation
Born in 1946, Michael Angelo Aquino was a military intelligence officer specializing in psychological warfare.[12] In 1969 he joined Anton LaVey's Church of Satan and rose rapidly through the group's ranks.[13] In 1970, while he was serving with the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, Aquino was stationed in Bến Cát in South Vietnam when he wrote a tract titled "Diabolicon" in which he reflected upon his growing divergence from the Church of Satan's doctrines.[14] In this tract, teachings about the creation of the world, God, and humanity are presented, as is the dualistic idea that Satan complements God.[15] The character of Lucifer is presented as bringing insight to human society,[16] a depiction of Lucifer that was inherited from John Milton's seventeenth-century epic poem Paradise Lost.[17]
By 1971 Aquino was ranked as a Magister Caverns of the IV° within the Church's hierarchy, was editor of its publication The Cloven Hoof, and sat on its governing Council of Nine.[12] In 1973 he rose to the previously unattained rank of Magister Templi of IV°.[12] According to the scholars of Satanism Per Faxneld and Jesper Petersen, Aquino had become LaVey's "right-hand man".[18] There were nonetheless things that Aquino disliked about the Church of Satan; he thought that it had attracted many "fad-followers, egomaniacs, and assorted oddballs, whose primary interest in becoming Satanists was to flash their membership cards for cocktail-party notoriety".[19] When, in 1975, LaVey abolished the system of regional groups, or grottos, and declared that in the future all degrees would be given in exchange for financial or other contributions to the Church, Aquino became increasingly disaffected; he resigned from the organization on June 10, 1975.[20] While LaVey seems to have held a pragmatic and practical view of the degrees and of the Satanic priesthood, intending them to reflect the social role of the degree holder within the organization, Aquino and his supporters viewed the priesthood as being spiritual, sacred and irrevocable.[21] Dyrendal, Lewis, and Petersen describe Aquino as, in effect, accusing LaVey of the sacrilege of simony.[21]
Aquino then provided what has been described as a "foundation myth" for his Setian religion.[22] Having departed the Church, he embarked on a ritual intent on asking Satan for advice on what to do next.[23] According to his account, at Midsummer 1975, Satan appeared and revealed that he wanted to be known by his true name, Set, which had been the name used by his worshippers in ancient Egypt.[24] Aquino produced a religious text, The Book of Coming Forth by Night, which he alleged had been revealed to him by Set through a process of automatic writing.[25] According to Aquino, "there was nothing overtly sensational, supernatural, or melodramatic about The Book of Coming Forth By Night working. I simply sat down and wrote it."[26] The book proclaimed Aquino to be the Magus of the new Aeon of Set and the heir to LaVey's "infernal mandate".[27] Aquino later stated that the revelation that Satan was Set necessitated his own exploration of Egyptology, a subject about which he had previously known comparatively little.[28]
Aquino's Book of Coming Forth by Night makes reference to The Book of the Law, a similarly revealed text produced by the occultist Aleister Crowley in 1904 which provided the basis for Crowley's religion of Thelema. In Aquino's book, The Book of the Law was presented as a genuine spiritual text given to Crowley by preternatural sources, but it was also declared that Crowley had misunderstood both its origin and message.[29] In making reference to The Book of the Law, Aquino presented himself as being as much Crowley's heir as LaVey's,[30] and Aquino's work would engage with Crowley's writings and beliefs to a far greater extent than LaVey ever did.[7]
In establishing the Temple, Aquino was joined by other ex-members of LaVey's Church,[12] and soon Setian groups, or pylons, were established in various parts of the United States.[12] The structure of the Temple was based largely on those of the ceremonial magical orders of the late nineteenth century, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Ordo Templi Orientis.[31] Aquino has stated that he believed LaVey not to be merely a charismatic leader but to have been actually appointed by Satan himself (referring to this charismatic authority as the "Infernal Mandate") to found the Church.[32] After the split of 1975, Aquino believed LaVey had lost the mandate, which the "Prince of Darkness" then transferred to Aquino and a new organization, the Temple of Set.[32] According to both the historian of religion Mattias Gardell and journalist Gavin Baddeley, Aquino displayed an "obsession" with LaVey after his departure from the Church, for instance by publicly releasing court documents that reflected negatively on his former mentor, among them restraining orders, divorce proceedings, and a bankruptcy filing.[33] In turn, LaVey lampooned the new Temple as "Laurel and Hardy's Sons of the Desert".[34] In 1975, the Temple incorporated as a non-profit Church in California, and later that year secured state and federal recognition and tax-exempted status.[35]
Later development
Many members of the Temple had voiced their opposition to Aquino's position of power within it.[36] Aquino relinquished his office of High Priest in 1979 to Ronald Keith Barrett,[37] who produced an inspired text of his own, titled The Book of Opening the Way.[38] Barrett's approach was later criticized as "more mystical than magical" by Temple members.[39] Barrett's leadership was also criticized as authoritarian,[40] resulting in a decline in the Temple's membership.[38] Barrett resigned his office and severed ties with the organization in May 1982.[37] He subsequently established his own Temple of Anubis, which he led until his 1998 death; it survived until the early 2010s.[36] After Barrett's departure, Aquino retook leadership of the Temple of Set.[36] During this period, the sociologist Gini Graham Scott clandestinely participated in the Temple, using her observations as the basis for her 1983 book The Magicians: A Study of the Use of Power in a Black Magic Group.[41]
After receiving his PhD in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1980, Aquino worked as an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University until 1986 while continuing to serve in the United States Army as an Active Guard Reserve officer at the Presidio of San Francisco.[42] He was fascinated with the connections between occultism and Nazism,[43] resulting in some accusations that he was sympathetic to Nazi ideology.[44] In 1983, he performed a solitary rite at Walhalla, the subterranean section of the Wewelsburg castle in Germany that was utilized as a ceremonial space by the Schutzstaffel's Ahnenerbe group during the Nazi period. This resulted in his formation of the Order of the Trapezoid, a Setian group whose members understood themselves as a chivalric order of knights.[45] From 1987 through to 1995, the Grand Master of the Order of the Trapezoid was Edred Thorsson, who had joined the Temple of Set in 1984 and risen to the Fifth Degree in 1990.[46] Thorsson exerted a "discernible influence" over the Setian community through his books, in which he combined aspects of Satanic philosophy with the modern Pagan religion of Heathenry.[47] In 1980, he founded the Texas-based Rune-Gild which shared many of the Temple's key philosophical tenets but with a focus on the study of runes and their applications in magical practice.[48]
In the 1980s, Aquino attracted greater publicity for his Temple through appearances on television talk shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show and Geraldo.[18] In 1987, during the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria, the three-year-old daughter of a Christian clergyman accused Aquino of sexually abusing her during Satanic rites held at his Russian Hill home. Responding to the allegations, police raided Aquino's home, however—after no evidence was found to substantiate the allegation and it was revealed that Aquino was living in Washington D.C. at the time of the alleged abuse—the police decided not to charge him with any felony.[49] Aquino attempted to bring formal charges against the chaplain and psychiatrist who had encouraged the girl's claims, although he was more successful in bringing legal action against two books—Carl A. Raschke's Painted Black and Linda Blood's The New Satanists—that had suggested that he was guilty.[50] cause” in the case of alleged child sexual abuse. Aquino. however, he was not convicted.[51] He then left the Presidio and was transferred to St. Louis.[52] In 1994, Aquino retired from active service in the Army, being honourably transferred to the Retired Reserve and awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.[53]
While the Satanic ritual abuse hysteria declined, Aquino continued to be a figure of prominence in "mind control" conspiracy theories because of his career as a psychological warfare officer in the US Army.[54] In the United Kingdom during this same period, tabloids like the News of the World and Sunday Mirror published sensationalist articles about the Temple.[55] In the mid-1990s, a group of British Setians approached the religious studies scholar Graham Harvey and encouraged him to conduct research into the group so as to combat misconceptions about them.[56] The Temple first registered a website in 1997, the same year as the Church of Satan.[57] It would also establish its own intranet, allowing for communication between Setians in different parts of the world.[5]
One member of the Temple was the New Zealander Kerry Bolton, who split to form his own Order of The Left Hand Path in 1990.[58] In 1995, another couple who joined were LaVey's daughter Zeena Schreck and her husband Nikolas Schreck, both of whom were vocal critics of Zeena's father.[59]
In 1996, Don Webb became the high priest of the Temple, a position that he held until 2002.[60] He was replaced by Zeena Schreck, but she resigned after six weeks and was replaced by Aquino, who took charge once more.[60] In that year, Zeena led a schism within the organization[9] establishing her own Berlin-based group, The Storm, which she later renamed the Sethian Liberation Movement.[61]
Aquino stood down as Supreme Priest again in 2004, to be replaced by Patricia Hardy who was elected to the position of Supreme Priestess.[61] Although no longer in charge of the organization, he nevertheless remained its most visible spokesperson.[61]
Aquino died in July 2020 at the age of 73.[62]
Ideology
Writings
In addition to the Book of Coming Forth by Night, in which Set himself is purported to speak, the Temple's philosophy and teachings are revealed in a series of occult writings titled the Jeweled Tablets of Set.[63] Each tablet is keyed to a specific degree in the Temple hierarchy.[63] Only the introduction to the first tablet (Crystal Tablet of Set), titled "Black Magic", is available for non-members.[63] The Ruby Tablet, which is available for second-degree members, is the lengthiest and most diverse of the tablets.[64]
The private Temple literature is not regarded as secret per se, but is kept restricted because it contains materials which, according to the Temple, may be dangerous to the non-initiated.[63]
Self-deification and Xeper
The human individual is at the centre of Setian philosophy.[22] The Temple places great emphasis on the development of the individual,[65] postulating self-deification as the ultimate goal.[18] The realization of the true nature of the Setian is termed "becoming" or "coming into being" and is represented by the Egyptian hieroglyphic term kheper, or "Xeper" (a phonetic of _Xpr_), as the Temple of Set prefers to write it.[66] This term is described in The Book of Coming Forth by Night as "the Word of the Aeon of Set".[67] Members attempt "to preserve and strengthen" their "isolate, psyche-centric existence" through adherence to the left-hand path.[9] This idea is in opposition to the traditional goal of Hermetic and Western mystical practices, which is the surrendering of the ego into a union with either God or the universe.[68]
The Temple teaches that the true self, or essence, is immortal, and Xeper is the ability to align consciousness with this essence.[9][69] Aquino taught that there is an afterlife for those who have reached the necessary level of individual development.[70] This afterlife could occur in the individual's subjective universe.[70] Those unable to reach this level dissolve into non-existence when the physical body dies.[70] Self-initiation is knowledge understood as a conjunction of intellect and intuition.[9] In keeping with its emphasis on the individual, the Temple encourages their members to celebrate their own birthday, and does not prescribe any other calendar of religious festivities.[71]
Barrett presented Xem as his Aeonic Word to the Setians,[39] presenting it as a natural and necessary further development of Aquino's Xeper.[38] Aquino later acknowledged Xem as a worthwhile magical concept for Setians to explore, but found Barrett's insistence on its exclusivity as incompatible with the Temple's individualistic philosophy.[38]
Set
Aquino's understanding of Satan differed from the atheistic interpretation promoted by LaVey,[22] and the Temple's theology differs from that of the Church of Satan.[72] The Temple states that the name Satan was originally a corruption of the name Set.[73] The Temple of Set promotes the idea that Set is a real entity,[74] and accordingly has been described as being "openly theistic".[18] It further argues that Set is ageless and is the only real god in existence, with all others having been created by the human imagination.[75] Set is described as having given humanity—through the means of non-natural evolution—the "Black Flame" or the "Gift of Set". This refers to humanity's questioning intellect which sets the species apart from other animals and gives it an "isolate self-consciousness" and the possibility to attain divinity.[76] Aquino argued that the idea of the Gift of Set was inadvertently promoted to a wider audience in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. According to Aquino, the black monolith which imparts human-level intelligence onto prehistoric apes in the film was a symbol of Set.[77]
While Setians are expected to revere Set, they do not worship him, instead regarding him as a teacher and a guide.[78] He is portrayed as a role model on which Setians can base their own deification.[79] According to Webb, "we do not worship Set - only our own potential. Set was and is the patron of the magician who seeks to increase his existence through expansion."[80]
Embracing the idea of aeons from Crowley's Thelema, Aquino adopted the Crowleyan tripartite division between the Aeon of Isis, Aeon of Osiris, and Aeon of Horus, but added to that the Aeon of Satan, which he dates from 1966 to 1975, and then the Aeon of Set, which he dated from 1975 onward.[81] Despite presenting these chronological parameters, Aquino also portrayed the aeons less as time periods and more as mind-sets that can co-exist alongside one another.[81] Thus, he stated that "A Jew, Christian or Muslim exists in the Æon of Osiris, a Wiccan in that of Isis, and a Thelemite in that of Horus".[81]
Magic
Aquino placed an emphasis on what he deemed to be the division between the objective and subjective universes.[82] In the Setian religion, the objective world is understood as representing the natural world and humanity's collective meaning systems, while the subjective universe is understood as the individually experienced world and individual meaning systems.[48] Following earlier esotericists like Crowley, Aquino characterized magic as "causing change in accordance with will".[83] Unlike LaVey, Aquino expressed belief in the division between black magic and white magic.[84] He described white magic as "a highly-concentrated form of conventional religious ritual", characterizing it as being "more versatile", "less difficult", and "less dangerous" than black magic.[85] However, he criticized white magic as "fraud and/or self-delusion" which deceives the consciousness into thinking that it has been accepted in the objective universe.[86]
Aquino divided black magic into two forms: lesser black magic and greater black magic.[87] He stated that lesser black magic entails "impelling" things that exist in the "objective universe" into doing a desired act by using "obscure physical or behavioral laws" and into this category he placed stage magic, psychodramas, politics, and propaganda.[88] Conversely, he used the term greater black magic in reference to changes in the subjective universe of the magician, allowing them to realize their self in accordance with the principle of Xeper.[89] Among Setians it is accepted that there may be changes in the objective universe as a result of greater black magic, but such effects are considered secondary to the impact that they have upon the subjective universe.[89]
Within the Temple, rituals are typically known as "workings",[90] and are most often carried out alone.[91] Stressing the religion's individualist nature, there are no rituals that are specifically prescribed by the Temple.[92] Aquino also emphasized that in order to achieve a desired aim, the Setian should carry out physical actions alongside magical ones.[83] There are no regular occasions which are marked by fixed rituals, and the Temple has no calendar of festivals.[91]
Insignia
The Temple uses an inverted pentagram as its insignia, known as the "Pentagram of Set" to Setians.[93][94] The use of the geometric shape is derived from the Sigil of Baphomet used by the Church of Satan, although stripped of its overtly Satanic add-ons.[93] The Temple explains the meaning and significance of the pentagram by referring to Pythagorean ideas and "mathematical perfection".[93] At Setian gatherings, members wear the pentagram as a medallion.[94] The medallion is colored according to the initiation degree of the Setian.[94]
Both the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set also use the trapezoid symbol.[93] The version used by the Church includes flames, a pitchfork and the number 666, while the trapezoid of the Temple has a left-facing Egyptian sceptre, and the number 666 stylized in geometric shapes rather than as clear numbers.[93]
Structure
The internal structure of the Temple of Set is closely reminiscent of that of the Church of Satan as it existed in the 1970s.[95]
Degrees
All members of the Temple must be affiliated with a pylon, and thus membership is by application, requiring contact with a Setian priestess or priest followed by an evaluation period.[9] The participation of non-initiated in the Temple's rituals are forbidden, due to the belief that their rituals would be dangerous in the wrong hands.[96]
The Temple of Set recognizes several stages or degrees of initiation. The degrees indicate the individual Setian's development and skill in magic.[97] The degree structure is based on that of the Church of Satan, which in turn was based on the degrees of a nineteenth-century occult group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.[98] The Temple terms the progression through degrees as "recognitions", because the organization's philosophy sees that the individual member initiates themselves and that the Temple merely acknowledges this by granting the degree.[99] These degrees are:[100]
Setian (First Degree)
Adept (Second Degree)
Priest / Priestess of Set (Third Degree)
Magister / Magistra Templi (Fourth Degree)
Magus / Maga (Fifth Degree)
Ipsissimus / Ipsissima (Sixth Degree)
The priesthood of the Temple of Set consists of members holding the third degree or higher; those in the first and second degrees are considered "lay members" of the Temple.[101] The first degree serves as a space for mutual evaluation, in which the Temple assesses whether the individual is appropriate for the group, and the individual decides whether they wish to further their involvement with it.[102] Full membership comes with recognition to the second degree.[99] Many members do not advance beyond the second degree, nor is this expected of them, as while the first and second degree members use the organization's teachings and tools for their own development, the priesthood involves greater responsibilities towards the organization, such as being its official representatives.[103]
Recognition is performed by members of the priesthood.[99] The fourth degree, which is acknowledged by the high priest/priestess, entails that the individual is so advanced in their magical skills that they are able to found their own school of magic, represented in the different orders of the Temple.[99] The fifth degree can only be awarded by the unanimous decision of the Council of Nine and by the approval of the Temple's high priest/priestess.[99] A fifth degree member has the power to utter and define a concept which somehow affects the philosophy of the organization, such as the concept of Xeper defined by Aquino in 1975.[99] Only a handful of members have attained this degree and most "fifth-degree" concepts defined in such a manner are no longer studied in the organization.[99] The final sixth degree represents a Magus "whose Task is complete".[99] This degree is held by a very select few in the Temple, although any fifth-degree member can assume the sixth degree based on their own assessment.[99]
Leadership
The organization is led by a high priest/priestess, who is also the public face of the Temple.[90] The high priest is chosen among fourth or higher degree members by the chairman of the Council of Nine.[90] This ruling council has nine members chosen from the priesthood (third degree or higher), whose mandate lasts for nine years with a new member being elected every year.[90] The chairman of the council is chosen from among the council members each year.[90] The council has the ultimate ruling power in the Temple and even the high priest is responsible to it.[90] The Temple also has an executive director, whose task is to deal with administrative issues.[90]
Since its founding in 1975, the temple has had the following high priests/priestesses:[90]
Michael A. Aquino (1975–1979, 1982–1996, 2002–2004)
Ronald K. Barrett (1979–1982)
Don Webb (1996–2002)
Zeena Schreck (2002)
Patricia Hardy (2004–2013)
James Fitzsimmons (2013–present)
Pylons, elements, and orders
In addition to the international organization, the Temple sponsors initiatory Orders and Elements and local groups called Pylons. Pylons are intended to facilitate the initiatory work of the Temple's members by conducting meetings where discussions and magical works take place.[98] The purpose of a pylon is to provide a space in which the Setian can focus on their religion, aided by like-minded individuals.[104] Pylons typically meet in a member's home.[104] Members usually join the Pylon located geographically closest to them.[98] Correspondence- or Internet-based Pylons also exist,[98] with Harvey noting that this online networking is more common than in-person interaction.[72] A Pylon is led by a second-degree (or higher) member who is called a Sentinel.[98][104] The term pylon derives from the architectural features which served as fortified gateways to ancient Egyptian temples.[105] One Finnish Setian informed Granholm that the relationship between the orders and the temple was like that of different departments in a university.[98]
Elements are loosely structured interest groups, where specific themes and issues are addressed.[98] They can be open for non-members and are commonly in operation only for short periods.[98] Topics of interest include, for example, animal rights, which was the subject of the Arkte element operated by Aquino's wife Lilith.[98]
There are sections of the Temple known as Orders, each of which focus on a particular theme, for instance ancient Egypt, Norse culture, Tantric Hinduism, or vampirism.[106] Others focus on a particular skill, for instance the Order of Uart focuses on the visual arts and the Order of Taliesin on music.[107] Orders can be understood as schools of different aspects of magic providing different paths of initiation.[98] Orders are led by grand masters, who will usually be the founder of the order.[98] In longer-lived orders the founder may have a successive grand master.[98] Orders are founded by members of the fourth degree.[99] When members reaches the second degree of initiation, they are expected to join an order of their own choosing.[98] In normal circumstances, a Setian is only permitted to join one order, however special dispensation can be obtained for a practitioner to join two.[5]
Setians also hold annual International Conclaves. First Degree Initiates who obtain sponsorship by a member of the Priesthood are permitted to attend the International Conclave and Regional Gatherings.[108]
Demographics
In 2000, the Temple had thirteen pylons, which were operating in the United States, Australia, Germany, and across Sweden and Finland.[73] The extent of the Temple's membership has not been publicly revealed by the group;[104] however, in 2005 Petersen noted that academic estimates for the Temple's membership varied from between 300 and 500,[9] and Granholm suggested that in 2007 the Temple contained circa 200 members.[109] The Temple's members come from a variety of racial backgrounds.[110]
In 1999, the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine suggested that in Britain there were 100 members of the Temple at most, and possibly "considerably fewer".[111] In 2001 the scholar Gareth Medway posited that the group had 70 to 80 members in the United Kingdom, adding that it was the largest Satanic group then active in the country.[112] In 2009, Harvey concurred with La Fontaine's assessment, although still believed that it was the largest Satanic group in the United Kingdom.[113] He noted that most members were male, between the ages of twenty and fifty, and that—despite his expectation that they might be political extremists—they endorsed mainstream political positions, with all those whom he communicated with stating that they had voted for either the Conservative Party, Labour Party, or Liberal Democrats.[72]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Set
THE definition of magic, as used in this book, is: "The change in situations or events in accordance with one's will, which would, using normally accepted methods, be unchangable." This admittedly leaves a large area for personal interpretation. It will be said, by some, that these instructions and procedures are nothing more than applied psychology, or scientific fact, called by "magical" terminology - until they arrive at a passage in the text that is "based on no known scientific finding". It is for this reason that no attempt has been made to limit the explanations set forth to a set nomenclature. Magic is never totally scientifically explainable, but science has always been, at one time or another, considered magic.
There is no difference between "White" and "Black" magic, except in the smug hypocrisy, guilt-ridden righteousness, and self-deceit of the "White" magician himself. In the classical religious tradition, "White" magic is performed for altruistic, benevolent, and "good" purposes; while "Black" magic is used for self-aggrandizement, personal power, and "evil" purposes. No one on earth ever pursued occult studies, metaphysics, yoga, or any other "white light" concept, without ego gratification and personal power as a goal. It just so happens that some people enjoy wearing hair shirts, and others prefer velvet or silk. What is pleasure to one, is pain to another, and the same applies to "good" and "evil". Every practitioner of witchcraft is convinced that he or she is doing the "right" thing.
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE
OF
SATANIC MAGIC
(Definition and Purpose)
https://cparker15.tripod.com/tsb/earthI.html
Magisterium of the Church: its norms are to be observed in the doctrine that is to be taught by Ours, 100; due reverence should be shown to it, 101; what is to be said if a given professor in his teaching departs from doctrine that is in accord with it, 104; we must collaborate with it in order to discern the movements of the Spirit in the sense of the faithful, 295
Magistrates: see Important persons, princes
Magnanimity: it should shine forth in the superior general [728]; in all superiors, 349 §2; and in novices, 51, 52 Magnates: see Important persons, princes
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts
THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES
SAINT LOUIS, 1996
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.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 Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts
THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES SAINT LOUIS, 1996
https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
WATCH: Harris speaks at Baptist megachurch in Georgia on her 60th birthday
Politics Oct 20, 2024 12:40 PM EST
STONECREST, Ga. (AP) — Kamala Harris told the congregation of a large Black church in suburban Atlanta on Sunday that people must show compassion and respect in their daily lives and do more than just “preach the values.”
Watch Harris’ remarks in the player above.
The Democratic presidential nominee’s visit to New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest on her 60th birthday, marked by a song by the congregation, was part of a broad, nationwide campaign, known as “Souls to the Polls,” that encourages Black churchgoers to vote.
READ MORE: Kamala Harris and faith: a Baptist with a Jewish spouse and ties to the Black Church and Gandhi
Pastor Jamal Bryant said the vice president was “an American hero, the voice of the future” and “our fearless leader.” He also used his sermon to welcome the idea of America electing a woman for the first time as president. “It takes a real man to support a real woman,” Bryant said.
“When Black women roll up their sleeves, then society has got to change,” the pastor said.
Harris told the parable of the Good Samaritan from the Gospel of Luke, about a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by robbers. The traveler was beaten and left bloodied, but helped by a stranger.
All faiths promote the idea of loving thy neighbor, Harris said, but far harder to achieve is truly loving a stranger as if that person were a neighbor.
“In this moment, across our nation, what we do see are some who try to deepen division among us, spread hate, sow fear and cause chaos,” Harris told the congregation. “The true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”
She was more somber than during her political rallies, stressing that real faith means defending humanity. She said the Samaritan parable reminds people that “it is not enough to preach the values of compassion and respect. We must live them.”
Harris ended by saying, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” as attendees applauded her.
Many in attendance wore pink to promote breast cancer awareness. Also on hand was Opal Lee, an activist in the movement to make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday. Harris hugged her.
The vice president also has a midday stop at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro with singer Stevie Wonder, before taping an interview with the Rev. Al Sharpton that will air later Sunday on MSNBC. The schedule reflects her campaign’s push to treat every voting group like a swing state voter, trying to appeal to them all in a tightly contested election with early voting in progress.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, headed to church in Saginaw, Michigan, and his wife, Gwen, was going to a service in Las Vegas.
The “Souls to the Polls” effort launched last week and is led by the National Advisory Board of Black Faith Leaders, which is sending representatives across battleground states as early voting begins in the Nov. 5 election.
“My father used to say, a ‘voteless people is a powerless people’ and one of the most important steps we can take is that short step to the ballot box,” Martin Luther King III said Friday. “When Black voters are organized and engaged, we have the power to shift the trajectory of this nation.”
On Saturday, the vice president rallied supporters in Detroit with singer Lizzo before traveling to Atlanta to focus on abortion rights, highlighting the death of a Georgia mother amid the state’s restrictive abortion laws that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court, with three justices nominated by Donald Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade.
WATCH: Harris campaigns in Detroit and Atlanta, joined by Lizzo and Usher
And after her Sunday push, she will campaign with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
“Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused,” Harris said.
Harris is a Baptist whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. She has said she’s inspired by the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and influenced by the religious traditions of her mother’s native India as well as the Black Church. Harris sang in the choir as a child at Twenty Third Avenue Church of God in Oakland.
“Souls to the Polls” as an idea traces back to the Civil Rights Movement. The Rev. George Lee, a Black entrepreneur from Mississippi, was killed by white supremacists in 1955 after he helped nearly 100 Black residents register to vote in the town of Belzoni. The cemetery where Lee is buried has served as a polling place.
Black church congregations across the country have undertaken get-out-the-vote campaigns for years. In part to counteract voter suppression tactics that date back to the Jim Crow era, early voting in the Black community is stressed from pulpits nearly as much as it is by candidates.
In Georgia, early voting began on Tuesday, and more than 310,000 people voted on that day, more than doubling the first-day total in 2020. A record 5 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Related
Judge invalidates Georgia’s new election rules, including ones on ballot counts and certification
By Kate Brumback, Associated Press
At age 100, Jimmy Carter casts his ballot for the 2024 election by mail in Georgia
By Associated Press
Harris courts younger Black voters as Trump faces grilling over tariff plans
By Stephanie Sy, Eliot Barnhart
WATCH: Harris delivers remarks on recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene in Augusta, Georgia
By Associated Press
Often overlooked, Black women bear the brunt of violent crime. Many see Harris as an ally
By Candice Norwood, The 19th
Go Deeper
black churches
georgia
kamala harris news
vote 2024
By — Colleen Long, Associated Press
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-harris-speaks-at-baptist-megachurch-in-georgia-on-her-60th-birthday
What Is the Al Smith Dinner And Why Isn’t Kamala Harris Attending?
By
Xavier Martinez
Vice President Kamala Harris won’t be in attendance for tonight’s Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner that benefits Catholic charities, but she will address the New York crowd in a video message, the New York archdiocese said. Harris is the first major party presidential candidate since Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984 to decline an invitation to the dinner. Instead, she’s spending the day campaigning in Wisconsin and traveling to Michigan, where she will campaign on Friday.
The dinner, which starts at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be emceed by comedian Jim Gaffigan, will include live remarks by former President Donald Trump. Update: Here is what Trump said at the dinner.
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/harris-trump-election-10-17-2024/card/what-is-the-al-smith-dinner-and-why-isn-t-kamala-harris-attending--C6eX4i3u4hDRPkrBrVO2
104 If any of our professors in his teaching departs from doctrine in accord with the magisterium of the Church, superiors ought to speak with him in order to understand well both him and his thinking; and, if occasion warrants, they should admonish him. If he does not change, superiors should not hesitate even to remove him from his teaching position, if it eventually proves necessary, observing as far as possible the statutes of the institution or faculty.[74]
105 During their course of studies, scholastics should be taught, under the direction of their professors, to read critically and use prudently the works of those authors who have greater influence on present-day cultures. Thus they should learn how to retain what is good and to correct what is unacceptable.[75]
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts
THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES
SAINT LOUIS, 1996
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
295 In the elaboration and expression of our theogical views and in our choice of pastoral options, we must always actively seek to understand the mind of the hierarchical Church, having as our goal the Society s objective to help souls. At the same time we must try to articulate the sensus fidelium and help the magisterium discern in it the movements of the Spirit in accord with the teaching of Vatican II.[125]
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts
THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES
SAINT LOUIS, 1996
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
PART VI 1THE PERSONAL LIFE OF THOSE ALREADY ADMITTED AND INCORPORATED INTO THE BODY OF THE SOCIETY
SECTION 1: THE APOSTOLIC CHARACTER OF OUR VOWS IN GENERAL
143 §1. Our consecration by profession of the evangelical counsels, by which we respond to a divine vocation, is at one and the same time the following of Christ poor, virginal, and obedient and a rejection of those idols that the world is always prepared to adore, especially wealth, pleasure, prestige, and power. Hence, our poverty, chastity, and obedience ought visibly and efficaciously to bear witness to this attitude, whereby we proclaim the evangelical possibility of a certain communion among men and women that is a foretaste of the future kingdom of God.[1]
§2. Our religious vows, while binding us, also set us FREE:
FREE, by our vow of poverty, to share the life of the poor and to use whatever resources we may have, not for our own security and comfort, but for service;
FREE, by our vow of chastity, to be men for others, in friendship and communion with all, but especially with those who share our mission of service;
FREE, by our vow of obedience, to respond to the call of Christ as made known to us by him whom the Spirit has placed over the Church, and to follow the lead of all our superiors.[2] [1] See GC 32, d. 4, no. 16; see GC 31, d. 16, no. 4; d. 17, no. 2; d. 18, no. 3. [2] GC 32, d. 2, no. 20. 215
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
Valley of Traverse City
ANCIENT ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE
The History and Legend of Scottish Rite Origins
The Story Unfolds…
Like much of early Masonic history, the origins of the Scottish Rite are uncertain. This is primarily due to the lack of historic documentation prior to the early 1700’s and not to any great veiled mystery. The few records kept were subject to loss, fire, weather and aging. So we can at best only speculate on many of our origins by looking at the few documents, historical references and legends that remain.
What We Know
n 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/.../scottish-rite-history.html
The Collège de Clermont was one of the earliest schools established by the Jesuits, who were incredibly influential in shaping education in Europe. The Jesuits were a rigid and hierarchical Catholic sect that followed the teachings of Ignatius Loyola.
https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/exhibits/show/development-of-education-in-ea/item/249#:~:text=The%20Coll%C3%A8ge%20de%20Clermont%20was,the%20teachings%20of%20Ignatius%20Loyola.
THE NEW AGE
GOD'S PLAN IN AMERICA C. WILLIAM SMITH, New Orleans, La. September 1950
THERE are three plans in action in America today and they all have different purposes. The first plan is God's plan, a nonsectarian plan; the second is the Roman Catholic plan, and this is a denominational or sectarian plan, and the third is the Communistic plan, an anticapitalist plan.
God's plan is dedicated to the unification of all races, religions and creeds. This plan, dedicated to the new order of things, is to make all things new-s new nation, a new race, a new civilization and a new religion, a nonsectarian religion that has already been recognized and called the religion of "The Great Light."
Looking back into history, we can easily see that the Guiding Hand of Providence has chosen the Nordic people to bring in and unfold the new order of the world. Records clearly show that 95 percent of the colonists were Nordics-Anglo-Saxons.
Providence has chosen the Nordics because the Nordics have prepared themselves and have chosen God. They are not church worshippers, for they worship God's word-the Holy Bible. The Nordics are. the great Bible-reading people of the world today, and the Nordics-Anglo-Saxons -were the first people to print the Holy Bible in great quantity, and they were known as the people of a book, that book being the Holy Bible.
But, in order to read the Bible, it is necessary to know how to read. In the Nordic race there is no illiteracy. In Norway there has been no illiteracy for more than a hundred years. Another fact that shows clearly that the Nordics are God's chosen people this time is they are always looking for more light on the mission of life.
Looking at their station of life, these great Bible-reading people should open the eyes of the world, King Gustaf of Sweden is a great light in the nonsectarian Masonic Brotherhood, and King Haakon of Norway is a Masonic light in Norway.
The late King Christian of Denmark was a Masonic spirit in his Denmark; also King George of England is a Masonic light to his Anglo-Saxon people. Just as Providence has chosen the Jewish race-the children of Israel-to bring into the world righteousness by carrying the "Ten Commandments" which emphasize 'Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy," so also Providence has chosen the Nordic race to unfold the 'New Age" of the world-a "Novus Ordo Seclorum." One of the first of the Nordics to reach the New World was the Viking, Leif Ericsson. He sailed from Norway to bring his people in Iceland a new message, the message of the Chritian God. But Providence moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform, and so Leif the Lucky was sent by Providence to the New World. From the abundance of grapes found there Leif Ericsson called the place Vinland. It is easy to sense that Leif Ericsson was sent by the Guiding Hand of Providence to bring the Norse spirit of the "All-Father" to the shores of the New World.
The Nordics are the highest branch of the fifth Aryan Civilization.; The Latins are of the fourth Aryan Civilization, and the American race will be the sixth Aryan Civilization. This new and great civilization is like an American Beauty rosebud, ready to open and send its wonderful fragrance to all the world. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine and many others of the founders of the New World were Nordics. Thomas Paine, the spark plug of the American Revolution, loved God but hated sectarianism. In 'These Are the times," he wrote: "We have it in our power to begin the world all over again! A situation familiar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah, till now. The birthday of a New World is at hand."
As stated before, God's Plan in America is nonsectarian plan. Our Constitution is nonsectarian. Our great American Public Schools-God's chosen schools-are nonsectarian. The Great Spirit behind this great nation is nonsectarian.
Our great American Public Schools have never taken away from any child the freedom of will, freedom of Spirit or freedom of mind. That is the divine reason that Great God our King has chosen the great American Public Schools to pave the way for the new race, the new religion and the new civilization that is taking place in America.
Any mother, father or guardian who is responsible for taking away of freedom of mind, freedom of will or freedom of spirit is the lowest criminal on this earth, because they take away from that child the God-given right to become a part of God's great plan in America for the dawn of the New Age of the world."
The Official Organ of The Supreme Council 33° A. & A. Scottish Rite of Freemasonry S. J. U. S. A. PUBLISHED AT 1735 SIXTEENTH STREET N, W. WASHINGTON, D. C.
Typhon [according to the Mystery Schools] is the embodiment of every perversity. He is the negative creation, the Ahriman of Zoroasterism. [And remember, we talked last Thursday about the movie 2001, and in the beginning of the movie, the musical score that you hear, the name of it is Also sprach Zarathustra, which is a tribute to Zoroaster, which is the androgynous god. The combination in one of the positive and negative; good, evil; male, female, etc., etc., etc. It is the concept 52 Performed in techno. 41 that Christ is also Lucifer, or that they are twins, and that's what they teach in the Mormon church.] Typhon [according to Mystery Schools] is black magic and sorcery— the Black Brotherhood [also known as the Jesuit Order]. Nephthys, his wife, is the institution through which it manifests. He is neither a single evil nor even a sequence of ills, but an infinite diversity of them, indescribably insidious, empowered to infect the fabric of church and state. [The enemy of the Mystery Schools are three: the church, the state and the mob, and, of course, the mob is us.] Typhon lured Osiris in to the ark of destruction at the time when the sun enters the house of the Scorpion, hence, we know him to be the eternal betrayer [or Judas], that ageless Judas, who undoes all good things and inevitably presages ruin. He is the power of the physical universe which is constantly seeking to destroy the spiritual values locked within its substances. [You will see that they have a talent for turning things around.] He strikes in the eighth month, and now it is supposed that a child delivered in the eighth month of the prenatal epoch cannot live because of the curse of Typhon. Osiris was born in the seventh month and therefore it may be said of him that he was delivered prior to the rule of Typhon. [And that's why our forefathers, all Freemasons, established this country by the signing of the Declaration of Independence in the month of July. And this will all become clearer to you as we go along.] Of all good things Typhon is the opposer [according to the Mystery Schools], occupying the position of the eternal negative. This evil monster made well be generalized under the appellation of the Adversary. In the initiation rites he also the tester or the tryer, “the lord who is against us.” [According to the Mystery Religion,] he is the personification of ambition, and ambition is the patron of ruin. It was ambition that set Typhon plotting for the throne of Egypt, designing how he should destroy the power of his brother. A learned Jesuit father sees in Typhon, Cain, and his brother Osiris, Abel. If such a parallel actually exists, then the Biblical allegory is susceptible of the same interpretation. [But, you see, they have twisted everything around.]
Osiris and Isis, Part II (aired February 18th, 1993)
https://viefag.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/transcripts-of-william-cooper-s-mystery-babylon-series.pdf
[William Cooper: The Mormon church is now, and has always been, a white Aryan racist organization, and until recently when threatened with lawsuits, they never allowed any other race then white Caucasians to belong. That's right, folks, and if you are a black American who belongs to the Mormon church, you have really been fooled. All of the secret organizations of Mystery Babylon are racist organizations.] (The 1978 decision opening the priesthood to blacks didn't change that law.) Blood atonement was also required for lying or "damning old Joe Smith or his religion..."
The Godmakers and Bo Gritz aired (aired October 13th, 1993)
https://viefag.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/transcripts-of-william-cooper-s-mystery-babylon-series.pdf
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine:
‘Negroes in this life are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty. (Abra. 1:20-27.) The gospel message of salvation is not carried affirmatively to them . . . negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow therefrom, but this inequality is not of man’s origin. It is the Lord’s doing, is based an his eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the lack of Spiritual valiance of those concerned in their first estate.’
https://missedinsunday.com/memes/race/not-equal/
A Black Fast, also known as a strict fast, is a form of early Christian fasting.[1] Those undertaking a Black Fast consume no food or water during the day and then break the fast after sunset with prayer, as well as water and a vegetarian meal devoid of meat, eggs, dairy products (lacticinia), and alcohol.[2][3][4][5] Christians normatively fasted in this way during Lent prior to the 6th century.[6]
Description and practice
Traditionally, the Black Fast is undertaken during Lent; it is the early Christian form of fasting consisting of fasting until sunset, and then consuming one vegetarian meal afterwards (with food and water being allowed only at this time).[5][4] This was the normative way of Christian fasting prior to the 6th century A.D. and among certain denominations (such as the Coptic Orthodox Church) and in some localities like India and Pakistan, many Christians continue to observe the Black Fast throughout the whole season of Lent.[6][5][7][8][9] After attending a worship service (often on Wednesday or Friday evenings), it is common for Christians of various denominations to break that day's Lenten fast together through a communal Lenten supper, which is held in the church's parish hall in the public setting; in the home setting Lenten Suppers take place in the context of a family meal every day during Lent (except on the Lord's Day).[10] Throughout the entire Christian year, many Christians keep the Black Fast on Wednesdays (in memory of Jesus' betrayal) and on Fridays (to mourn the crucifixion of Jesus).[11] In Western Christianity, many monastics still retain this practice, though many laypeople voluntarily undertake the Black Fast, especially on Good Friday.[12]
The details of the Black Fast are as follows:[13][3]
No food or liquids are allowed from midnight until sunset.[14][4][9]
One vegetarian meal a day is permitted, only after sunset.[3][14][15][13]
A mealtime prayer is offered at the time the Black Fast is broken.[5]
Flesh meat, eggs, and dairy products (lacticinia: milk, butter, and cheese) are forbidden.[13]
Alcohol is forbidden.[13][16]
During Holy Week (the final week of Lent), the Lenten supper meal consists exclusively of bread, salt, herbs, and water.[3][A]
Oriental Orthodoxy
Coptic Orthodox Church
Further information: Fasting and abstinence of the Coptic Orthodox Church
In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Black Fast is the normative way of fasting during Great Lent; Coptic Orthodox Christians go without water and food from midnight to sunset; after that time, the consumption of water and one vegetarian meal is permitted.[9] Married couples abstain from sexual relations during this period "to give themselves time for fasting and prayer (1 Cor. 7: 5)."[9]
Roman Catholicism
The Black Fast was widely practiced by the faithful during the Lenten season by "kings and princes, clergy and laity, rich and poor".[18] In addition, the Black Fast was kept on the days preceding one's ordination.[18] When fasting today, Roman Catholics have the liberty to fast in this manner, or in the modern fashion in which a collation is permitted. Fasting rules were liberalised to avoid accidents due to weakness or lack of concentration in modern industrial jobs. For the same reason some soldiers in military orders like the Hospitallers were historically exempt from the strict rule.
Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism
The Black Fast is observed by the devout Eastern Orthodox laity or monks throughout Great Lent, as well as the three other fasting periods of the year (the Dormition Fast, Nativity Fast, and the Apostles' Fast) and occasionally on the weekly fast days of Wednesday and Friday.[19][20]
Some Eastern Catholics and Eastern Lutherans perform the Black Fast on Fridays during Lent, especially on Good Friday.
Romanian Orthodox Church
The term "Black Fast" has a different connotation within the Romanian Orthodox Church, which defines it somewhat similar to the definition given by those within the realms of the Classical Pentecostal movement (see below).
Anglican Communion
In Anglican Communion, the faithful have observed the Black Fast on "the two great Prayer Book fast days, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday".[12] The Black Fast was especially popular during the 19th century as it sought to imitate "the fasting of the ancient church."[12]
Pentecostalism
The term "Black Fast" has a different connotation with writers within Classical Pentecostalism. A Black Fast is complete abstinence from food or water and nothing is consumed in its duration.[21]
Ward states that the terms "Black Fast," "Hebrew Fast," and "Absolute Fast" are synonymous. British evangelical Arthur Wallis coined the term "Absolute Fast" in his book God's Chosen Fast (1968).[22]
A Normal Fast or "Complete Fast" consists of eating nothing but drinking pure water. A Partial Fast (or Daniel Fast) consists of abstinence, either eliminating all but one type of food or eliminating just one type of food. The Black Fast is observed on rare occasions in Pentecostal circles while the Normal Fast is most usually undertaken.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Fast
Obsidian (/əbˈsɪdi.ən, ɒb-/ əb-SID-ee-ən ob-)[5] is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.[6]
Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminum, sodium, and potassium. It is commonly found within the margins of rhyolitic lava flows known as obsidian flows. These flows have a high content of silica, giving them a high viscosity. The high viscosity inhibits diffusion of atoms through the lava, which inhibits the first step (nucleation) in the formation of mineral crystals. Together with rapid cooling, this results in a natural glass forming from the lava.[7]
Obsidian is hard, brittle, and amorphous; it therefore fractures with sharp edges. In the past, it was used to manufacture cutting and piercing tools, and it has been used experimentally as surgical scalpel blades.[8]
Origin and properties
The Natural History by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder includes a few sentences about a volcanic glass called obsidian (lapis obsidianus), discovered in Ethiopia by Obsidius, a Roman explorer.[9][10][11][12]
Obsidian is formed from quickly cooled lava, which is the parent material.[13][14][15] Extrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools rapidly at the edges of a felsic lava flow or volcanic dome, or when lava cools during sudden contact with water or air. Intrusive formation of obsidian may occur when felsic lava cools along the edges of a dike.[16][17]
Tektites were once thought by many to be obsidian produced by lunar volcanic eruptions,[18] though few scientists now adhere to this hypothesis.[19]
Obsidian is mineral-like, but not a true mineral because, as a glass, it is not crystalline; in addition, its composition is too variable to be classified as a mineral. It is sometimes classified as a mineraloid.[20] Though obsidian is usually dark in color, similar to mafic rocks such as basalt, the composition of obsidian is extremely felsic. Obsidian consists mainly of SiO2 (silicon dioxide), usually 70% by weight or more; the remainder consists of variable amounts of other oxides, mostly oxides of aluminum, iron, potassium, sodium and calcium.[21][22] Crystalline rocks with a similar composition include granite and rhyolite. Because obsidian is metastable at the Earth's surface (over time the glass devitrifies, becoming fine-grained mineral crystals), obsidian older than Miocene in age is rare. Exceptionally old obsidians include a Cretaceous welded tuff and a partially devitrified Ordovician perlite.[23] This transformation of obsidian is accelerated by the presence of water. Although newly formed obsidian has a low water content, typically less than 1% water by weight,[24] it becomes progressively hydrated when exposed to groundwater, forming perlite.
Pure obsidian is usually dark in appearance, though the color varies depending on the impurities present. Iron and other transition elements may give the obsidian a dark brown to black color. Most black obsidians contain nanoinclusions of magnetite, an iron oxide.[25] Very few samples of obsidian are nearly colorless. In some stones, the inclusion of small, white, radially clustered crystals (spherulites) of the mineral cristobalite in the black glass produce a blotchy or snowflake pattern (snowflake obsidian). Obsidian may contain patterns of gas bubbles remaining from the lava flow, aligned along layers created as the molten rock was flowing before being cooled. These bubbles can produce interesting effects such as a golden sheen (sheen obsidian). An iridescent, rainbow-like sheen (fire obsidian) is caused by inclusions of magnetite nanoparticles creating thin-film interference.[26] Colorful, striped obsidian (rainbow obsidian) from Mexico contains oriented nanorods of hedenbergite, which cause the rainbow striping effects by thin-film interference.[25]
Occurrence
Obsidian is found near volcanoes in locations which have undergone rhyolitic eruptions. It can be found in Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia,[27] Canada, Chile, Georgia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Scotland, the Canary Islands, Turkey and the United States. Obsidian flows which are so large that they can be hiked on are found within the calderas of Newberry Volcano (Big Obsidian Flow,[28] 700 acres) and Medicine Lake Volcano in the Cascade Range of western North America, and at Inyo Craters east of the Sierra Nevada in California. Yellowstone National Park has a mountainside containing obsidian located between Mammoth Hot Springs and the Norris Geyser Basin, and deposits can be found in many other western U.S. states including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Washington,[29] Oregon[30] and Idaho.
There are only four major deposit areas in the central Mediterranean: Lipari, Pantelleria, Palmarola and Monte Arci (Sardinia).[31]
Ancient sources in the Aegean were Milos and Gyali.[32]
Acıgöl town and the Göllü Dağ volcano were the most important sources in central Anatolia, one of the more important source areas in the prehistoric Near East.[33][34][35]
Prehistoric and historical use
The first known archaeological evidence of usage was in Kariandusi (Kenya) and other sites of the Acheulian age (beginning 1.5 million years BP) dated 700,000 BC, although only very few objects have been found at these sites relative to the Neolithic.[36][37][38][39][40] Manufacture of obsidian bladelets at Lipari had reached a high level of sophistication by the late Neolithic, and was traded as far as Sicily, the southern Po river valley, and Croatia.[41] Obsidian bladelets were used in ritual circumcisions and cutting of umbilical cords of newborns.[42] Anatolian sources of obsidian are known to have been the material used in the Levant and modern-day Iraqi Kurdistan from a time beginning sometime about 12,500 BC.[43] Obsidian artifacts are common at Tell Brak, one of the earliest Mesopotamian urban centers, dating to the late fifth millennium BC.[44] Obsidian was valued in Stone Age cultures because, like flint, it could be fractured to produce sharp blades or arrowheads in a process called knapping. Like all glass and some other naturally occurring rocks, obsidian breaks with a characteristic conchoidal fracture. It was also polished to create early mirrors. Modern archaeologists have developed a relative dating system, obsidian hydration dating, to calculate the age of obsidian artifacts.
Europe
Obsidian artifacts first appeared in the European continent in Central Europe in the Middle Paleolithic and had become common by the Upper Paleolithic, although there are exceptions to this. Obsidian played an important role in the transmission of Neolithic knowledge and experiences. The material was mainly used for production of chipped tools which were very sharp due to its nature. Artifacts made of obsidian can be found in many Neolithic cultures across Europe. The source of obsidian for cultures inhabiting the territory of and around Greece was the island of Milos; the Starčevo–Körös–Criș culture obtained obsidian from sources in Hungary and Slovakia, while the Cardium-Impresso cultural complex acquired obsidian from the island outcrops of the central Mediterranean. Through trade, these artifacts ended up in lands thousands of kilometers away from the original source; this indicates that they were a highly valued commodity.[45] John Dee had a mirror, made of obsidian, which was brought from Mexico to Europe between 1527 and 1530 after Hernando Cortés's conquest of the region.[46]
Middle East and Asia
In the Ubaid in the 5th millennium BC, blades were manufactured from obsidian extracted from outcrops located in modern-day Turkey.[47] Ancient Egyptians used obsidian imported from the eastern Mediterranean and southern Red Sea regions. Obsidian scalpels older than 2100 BC have been found in a Bronze Age settlement in Turkey.[48] In the eastern Mediterranean area the material was used to make tools, mirrors and decorative objects.[49]
The use of obsidian tools was present in Japan near areas of volcanic activity.[50][51] Obsidian was mined during the Jōmon period.
Obsidian has also been found in Gilat, a site in the western Negev in Israel. Eight obsidian artifacts dating to the Chalcolithic Age found at this site were traced to obsidian sources in Anatolia. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) on the obsidian found at this site helped to reveal trade routes and exchange networks previously unknown.[52]
Americas
Lithic analysis helps to understand pre-Hispanic groups in Mesoamerica. A careful analysis of obsidian in a culture or place can be of considerable use to reconstruct commerce, production, and distribution, and thereby understand economic, social and political aspects of a civilization. This is the case in Yaxchilán, a Maya city where even warfare implications have been studied linked with obsidian use and its debris.[53] Another example is the archeological recovery at coastal Chumash sites in California, indicating considerable trade with the distant site of Casa Diablo Hot Springs in the Sierra Nevada.[54]
Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans' use of obsidian was extensive and sophisticated; including carved and worked obsidian for tools and decorative objects. Mesoamericans also made a type of sword with obsidian blades mounted in a wooden body. Called a macuahuitl, the weapon could inflict terrible injuries, combining the sharp cutting edge of an obsidian blade with the ragged cut of a serrated weapon. The polearm version of this weapon was called tepoztopilli.
Obsidian mirrors were used by some Aztec priests to conjure visions and make prophecies. They were connected with Tezcatlipoca, god of obsidian and sorcery, whose name can be translated from the Nahuatl language as 'Smoking Mirror'.[46]
Indigenous people traded obsidian throughout the Americas. Each volcano and in some cases each volcanic eruption produces a distinguishable type of obsidian allowing archaeologists to use methods such as non-destructive energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence to select minor element compositions from both the artifact and geological sample to trace the origins of a particular artifact.[55] Similar tracing techniques have also allowed obsidian in Greece to be identified as coming from Milos, Nisyros or Gyali, islands in the Aegean Sea. Obsidian cores and blades were traded great distances inland from the coast.[56]
In Chile obsidian tools from Chaitén Volcano have been found as far away as in Chan-Chan 400 km (250 mi) north of the volcano, and also in sites 400 km south of it.[57][58]
Oceania
The Lapita culture, active across a large area of the Pacific Ocean around 1000 BC, made widespread use of obsidian tools and engaged in long distance obsidian trading. The complexity of the production technique for these tools, and the care taken in their storage, may indicate that beyond their practical use they were associated with prestige or high status.[59]
Obsidian was also used on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) for edged tools such as Mataia and the pupils of the eyes of their Moai (statues), which were encircled by rings of bird bone.[60] Obsidian was used to inscribe the Rongorongo glyphs.
Current use
Obsidian can be used to make extremely sharp knives, and obsidian blades are a type of glass knife made using naturally occurring obsidian instead of manufactured glass. Obsidian is used by some surgeons for scalpel blades, although this is not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on humans.[61] Well-crafted obsidian blades, like any glass knife, can have a cutting edge many times sharper than high-quality steel surgical scalpels: the cutting edge of the blade is only about three nanometers thick.[62] All metal knives have a jagged, irregular blade when viewed under a strong enough microscope; however, obsidian blades are still smooth, even when examined under an electron microscope.[63] One study found that obsidian incisions produced fewer inflammatory cells and less granulation tissue in a group of rats after seven days but the differences disappeared after twenty-one days.[64] Don Crabtree has produced surgical obsidian blades and written articles on the subject.[62] Obsidian scalpels may be purchased for surgical use on research animals.[65]
The major disadvantage of obsidian blades is their brittleness compared to those made of metal,[66] thus limiting the surgical applications for obsidian blades to a variety of specialized uses where this is not a concern.[62]
Obsidian is also used for ornamental purposes and as a gemstone.[67] It presents a different appearance depending on how it is cut: in one direction it is jet black, while in another it is glistening gray. "Apache tears" are small rounded obsidian nuggets often embedded within a grayish-white perlite matrix.
Plinths for audio turntables have been made of obsidian since the 1970s, such as the grayish-black SH-10B3 plinth by Technics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsidian
The Black Stone (Arabic: ٱلْحَجَرُ ٱلْأَسْوَد, romanized: al-Ḥajar al-Aswad) is a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba, the ancient building in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.
The stone was venerated at the Kaaba in pre-Islamic pagan times. According to Islamic tradition, it was set intact into the Kaaba's wall by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 605 CE, five years before his first revelation. Since then, it has been broken into fragments and is now cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Its physical appearance is that of a fragmented dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of pilgrims. It has often been described as a meteorite.[1]
Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba as a part of the tawaf ritual during the hajj and many try to stop to kiss the Black Stone, emulating the kiss that Islamic tradition records that it received from Muhammad.[2][3] While the Black Stone is revered, Islamic theologians emphasize that it has no divine significance and that its importance is historical in nature.[4]
Physical description
The Black Stone was originally a single piece of rock but today consists of several pieces that have been cemented together. They are surrounded by a silver frame which is fastened by silver nails to the Kaaba's outer wall.[5] The fragments are themselves made up of smaller pieces which have been combined to form the seven or eight fragments visible today. The Stone's exposed face measures about 20 centimetres (7.9 in) by 16 centimetres (6.3 in). Its original size is unclear and the recorded dimensions have changed considerably over time, as the pieces have been rearranged in their cement matrix on several occasions.[1] In the 10th century, an observer described the Black Stone as being one cubit (46 cm or 18 in) long. By the early 17th century, it was recorded as measuring 140 by 122 cm (4 ft 7 in by 4 ft 0 in). According to Ali Bey in the 18th century, it was described as 110 cm (3 ft 7 in) high, and Muhammad Ali Pasha reported it as being 76 cm (2 ft 6 in) long by 46 cm (1 ft 6 in) wide.[1]
The Black Stone is attached to the east corner of the Kaaba, known as al-Rukn al-Aswad (the 'Corner of the Black Stone').[6] Another stone, known as the Hajar as-Sa’adah ('Stone of Felicity') is set into the Kaaba's opposite corner, al-Rukn al-Yamani (the 'Yemeni Corner'), at a somewhat lower height than the Black Stone.[7] The choice of the east corner may have had ritual significance; it faces the rain-bringing east wind (al-qabul) and the direction from which Canopus rises.[8]
The silver frame around the Black Stone and the black kiswah or cloth enveloping the Kaaba were for centuries maintained by the Ottoman Sultans in their role as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The frames wore out over time due to the constant handling by pilgrims and were periodically replaced. Worn-out frames were brought back to Istanbul, where they are still kept as part of the sacred relics in the Topkapı Palace.[9]
Appearance of the Black Stone
The Black Stone was described by European travellers to Arabia in the 19th- and early-20th centuries, who visited the Kaaba disguised as pilgrims. Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Mecca in 1814, and provided a detailed description in his 1829 book Travels in Arabia:
It is an irregular oval, about seven inches [18 cm] in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly well smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into as many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellow substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown approaching to black. It is surrounded on all sides by a border composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.[10]
Visiting the Kaaba in 1853, Richard Francis Burton noted that:
The colour appeared to me black and metallic, and the centre of the stone was sunk about two inches below the metallic circle. Round the sides was a reddish-brown cement, almost level with the metal, and sloping down to the middle of the stone. The band is now a massive arch of gold or silver gilt. I found the aperture in which the stone is, one span and three fingers broad.[11]
Ritter von Laurin, the Austrian consul-general in Egypt, was able to inspect a fragment of the Stone removed by Muhammad Ali in 1817 and reported that it had a pitch-black exterior and a silver-grey, fine-grained interior in which tiny cubes of a bottle-green material were embedded. There are reportedly a few white or yellow spots on the face of the Stone, and it is officially described as being white with the exception of the face.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone
The Shabaka Stone, sometimes Shabaqo, is a relic incised with an ancient Egyptian religious text, which dates from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt.[1] In later years, the stone was likely used as a millstone, which damaged the hieroglyphs. This damage is accompanied by other intentional defacements, leaving the hieroglyphic inscription in poor condition.
Provenance
Historical origins
Originally erected as a lasting monument at the Great Temple of Ptah in Memphis in the late eighth century BCE, the stone was at some point removed (for unknown reasons) to Alexandria.[2] From there, it was transported by a navy vessel from Alexandria to England. It was brought back as ballast along with a capital of an Egyptian column, fragments of a Greco-Roman black basalt capital, two fragments of quartzite lintel of Senwosret III, and a black granite kneeling statue of Ramesses II.[3] In 1805, the stone was donated to the British Museum by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834), who was First Lord of the Admiralty and since 1794 the trustee of the museum.[4] In 1901, the stone was deciphered, translated, and interpreted for the first time by the American Egyptologist, James Henry Breasted.[5] The monument has remained at the museum to the present day.[2]
Dating
The stone's dedicatory introduction claims that it is a copy of the surviving contents of a worm-ridden, decaying papyrus found by the pharaoh Shabaka in the Great Temple of Ptah.[6] Homer W. Smith dates the original text to the First Dynasty, calling it "the oldest written record of human thought".[7]
Breasted, Adolf Erman, Kurt Sethe, and Hermann Junker all dated the stone to the Old Kingdom.[8] The stone is archaic, both linguistically (its language is similar to that used in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom) and politically (it alludes to the importance of Memphis as the first royal city).[8] As such, Henri Frankfort, John Wilson, Miriam Lichtheim, and Erik Iversen have also assessed the stone to be from the Old Kingdom.[8] However, Friedrich Junge and most other scholars since then have argued that the monument was produced in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.[8] Today, scholars feel it is clear that it cannot predate the Nineteenth Dynasty.[9]
Composition
The stela is around 137 centimetres (54 in) wide, with the left side height estimated at 91 centimetres (36 in) and the right side about 95 centimetres (37 in).[10] The written surface is 132 centimetres (52 in) in width and on average, 66 centimetres (26 in) in height.[10] The rectangular hole in the center is 12 by 14 centimetres (4.7 by 5.5 in), with eleven radiating lines ranging in length from 25 to 38 centimetres (9.8 to 15.0 in).[10] The area of the surface which has been completely worn-out measures 78 centimetres (31 in) across.[10]
In 1901, James Henry Breasted identified the stone as a rectangular slab of black granite.[11] While other scholars postulated that the monument was a slab or basalt or a conglomerate stone, a recent analysis by a scientist of the British Museum revealed the stone to be green breccia originating from Wadi Hammamat.[12]
Content
Detail of hieroglyphic inscription
The text includes two main divisions with a short introduction and an ending summary. The first division relates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Ptah works through Horus to accomplish this unification. The other is a creation myth, the "Memphite Theology" or "Memphite Drama",[7] that establishes Ptah as the creator of all things, including gods.
The text stresses that it is in Memphis that the unification of Egypt took place.[13] The inscription also states that this town was the burial-place of Osiris, after he drifted ashore.[13]
Introduction and titulary of the King
The first line of the stone presents the fivefold royal titulary of the king: "The living Horus: Who prospers the Two Lands; the Two Ladies: Who prospers the Two Lands; the King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Neferkare; the Son of Re: [Shabaka], beloved of Ptah-South-of-His-Wall, who lives like Re forever."[14] The first three names emphasize the king's manifestation as a living god (especially of the falcon-headed Horus, patron god to the Egyptian kings), while the latter two names (the king's throne name and birth name) refer to Egypt's division and unification.[6]
The second line, a dedicatory introduction, states that the stone is a copy of the surviving contents of a worm-eaten papyrus Shabaka found as he was inspecting the Great Temple of Ptah.[6]
The Unification of Egypt
Lines 3 to 47 describe the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the god Horus at Memphis.[14] The text first declares the political and theological supremacy of the Memphite god Ptah, the king of both Upper and Lower Egypt, and the creator of the Ennead.[15] The inscription then describes how Horus, as a manifestation of Ptah, initially rules Lower Egypt while his rival Set rules Upper Egypt.[16] However, Horus receives Upper Egypt from Geb, becoming the sole ruler of the land.[16]
The Memphite Theology
Lines 48 to 64 recount the creation myth known as the Memphite Theology.[14] Ptah, the patron god of craftsmen, metalworkers, artisans, and architects was viewed as a creator-god, a divine craftsman of the universe who was responsible for all existence.[17] Creation was first a spiritual and intellectual activity, facilitated by the divine heart (thought) and tongue (speech/word) of Ptah.[18] Then, creation became a physical activity carried out by Atum, who, created by Ptah's teeth and lips, produced the Ennead from his seed and hands.[18]
Thus it is said of Ptah: “He who made all and created the gods.” And he is
Ta-tenen, who gave birth to the gods, and from whom every thing came
forth, foods, provisions, divine offerings, and all good things. Thus it is
recognized and understood that he is the mightiest of the gods. Thus Ptah
was satisfied after he had made all things and all divine word. . . . Indeed,
Ptah is the fountain of life for the gods and all material realities.
Summary
Lines 61 through 64 summarize the text as a whole.[14]
Purpose
According to Ragnhild Bjerre Finnestad, there are three theories on the possible purpose of the Shabaka text:
To assert the supremacy of the Memphite theological system over the Heliopolitan
To claim the hegemony of the Memphis and its priesthood over Heliopolis and its priesthood
To present an ontology.[19]
As a temple text written down and set up in the temple of Ptah, it is likely that the Shabaka Stone served a religious, cultic-theological purpose, placing its subject matter within a cultic frame of reference.[19]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabaka_Stone
Niggardly (noun: niggard) is an adjective meaning 'stingy' or 'miserly'. Niggard (14th C) is derived from the Middle English word meaning 'stingy,' nigon, which is probably derived from two other words also meaning 'stingy,' Old Norse hnǫggr and Old English hnēaw.[2] The word niggle, which in modern usage means to give excessive attention to minor details, probably shares an etymology with niggardly.[3]
Nigger, a racial slur widely considered to be offensive, derives from the Spanish word Negro, meaning 'black', and the French word nègre. Both negro and noir (and therefore also nègre and nigger) ultimately come from the Latin adjective niger, 'black' or 'dark'.[4] The first recorded use of nigger dates to 1574, and its first recorded derogatory use to 1775.[5][6] Plays on the similarity of the two words date back at least a century, one example being a piece of sheet music from 1900.[7][original research?]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_niggardly
In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter.[1]
In analytical psychology, the term became a metaphor for "the dark night of the soul, when an individual confronts the shadow within."[2]
Jung
For Carl Jung, "the rediscovery of the principles of alchemy came to be an important part of my work as a pioneer of psychology".[3] As a student of alchemy, he (and his followers) "compared the 'black work' of the alchemists (the nigredo) with the often highly critical involvement experienced by the ego, until it accepts the new equilibrium brought about by the creation of the self."[4] Jungians interpreted nigredo in two main psychological senses.
The first sense represented a subject's initial state of undifferentiated unawareness, "the first nigredo, that of the unio naturalis, is an objective state, visible from the outside only ... an unconscious state of non-differentiation between self and object, consciousness and the unconscious."[5] Here the subject is unaware of the unconscious; i.e. the connection with the instincts.[6]
In the second sense, "the nigredo of the process of individuation on the other hand is a subjectively experienced process brought about by the subject's painful, growing awareness of his shadow aspects."[7] It could be described as a moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development.[8] As individuation unfolds, so "confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective or even impossible ... nigredo, tenebrositas, chaos, melancholia."[9] Here is "the darkest time, the time of despair, disillusionment, envious attacks; the time when Eros and Superego are at daggers drawn, and there seems no way forward ... nigredo, the blackening."[10]
Only subsequently would come "an enantiodromia; the nigredo gives way to the albedo ... the ever deepening descent into the unconscious suddenly becomes illumination from above."[11]
Further steps of the alchemical opus include such images as albedo (whiteness), citrinitas (yellowness), and rubedo (redness). Jung also found psychological equivalents for many other alchemical concepts, with "the characterization of analytic work as an opus; the reference to the analytic relationship as a vas, vessel or container; the goal of the analytic process as the coniunctio, or union of conflicting opposites."[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigredo
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as 50 million people[2] perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population.[3] The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and spread by fleas and through the air.[4][5] One of the most significant events in European history, the Black Death had far-reaching population, economic, and cultural impacts. It was the beginning of the second plague pandemic.[6] The plague created religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history.
The origin of the Black Death is disputed.[7] Genetic analysis suggests Yersinia pestis bacteria evolved approximately 7,000 years ago, at the beginning of the Neolithic,[8] with flea-mediated strains emerging around 3,800 years ago during the late Bronze Age.[9] The immediate territorial origins of the Black Death and its outbreak remain unclear, with some evidence pointing towards Central Asia, China, the Middle East, and Europe.[10][11] The pandemic was reportedly first introduced to Europe during the siege of the Genoese trading port of Kaffa in Crimea by the Golden Horde army of Jani Beg in 1347. From Crimea, it was most likely carried by fleas living on the black rats that travelled on Genoese ships, spreading through the Mediterranean Basin and reaching North Africa, West Asia, and the rest of Europe via Constantinople, Sicily, and the Italian Peninsula.[12] There is evidence that once it came ashore, the Black Death mainly spread from person-to-person as pneumonic plague, thus explaining the quick inland spread of the epidemic, which was faster than would be expected if the primary vector was rat fleas causing bubonic plague.[13][14][15] In 2022, it was discovered that there was a sudden surge of deaths in what is today Kyrgyzstan from the Black Death in the late 1330s; when combined with genetic evidence, this implies that the initial spread may not have been due to Mongol conquests in the 14th century, as previously speculated.[16][17]
The Black Death was the second great natural disaster to strike Europe during the Late Middle Ages (the first one being the Great Famine of 1315–1317) and is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of the European population, as well as approximately 33% of the population of the Middle East.[18][19][20] There were further outbreaks throughout the Late Middle Ages and, also due to other contributing factors (the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages), the European population did not regain its 14th century level until the 16th century.[a][21] Outbreaks of the plague recurred around the world until the early 19th century.
Names
European writers contemporary with the plague described the disease in Latin as pestis or pestilentia, 'pestilence'; epidemia, 'epidemic'; mortalitas, 'mortality'.[22] In English prior to the 18th century, the event was called the "pestilence" or "great pestilence", "the plague" or the "great death".[22][23][24] Subsequent to the pandemic "the furste moreyn" (first murrain) or "first pestilence" was applied, to distinguish the mid-14th century phenomenon from other infectious diseases and epidemics of plague.[22]
The 1347 pandemic plague was not referred to specifically as "black" in the time of occurrence in any European language, though the expression "black death" had occasionally been applied to fatal disease beforehand.[22] "Black death" was not used to describe the plague pandemic in English until the 1750s; the term is first attested in 1755, where it translated Danish: den sorte død, lit. 'the black death'.[22][25] This expression as a proper name for the pandemic had been popularized by Swedish and Danish chroniclers in the 15th and early 16th centuries, and in the 16th and 17th centuries was transferred to other languages as a calque: Icelandic: svarti dauði, German: der schwarze Tod, and French: la mort noire.[26][27] Previously, most European languages had named the pandemic a variant or calque of the Latin: magna mortalitas, lit. 'Great Death'.[22]
The phrase 'black death' – describing Death as black – is very old. Homer used it in the Odyssey to describe the monstrous Scylla, with her mouths "full of black Death" (Ancient Greek: πλεῖοι μέλανος Θανάτοιο, romanized: pleîoi mélanos Thanátoio).[28][26] Seneca the Younger may have been the first to describe an epidemic as 'black death', (Latin: mors atra) but only in reference to the acute lethality and dark prognosis of disease.[29][26][22] The 12th–13th century French physician Gilles de Corbeil had already used atra mors to refer to a "pestilential fever" (febris pestilentialis) in his work On the Signs and Symptoms of Diseases (De signis et symptomatibus aegritudium).[26][30] The phrase mors nigra, 'black death', was used in 1350 by Simon de Covino (or Couvin), a Belgian astronomer, in his poem "On the Judgement of the Sun at a Feast of Saturn" (De judicio Solis in convivio Saturni), which attributes the plague to an astrological conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.[31] His use of the phrase is not connected unambiguously with the plague pandemic of 1347 and appears to refer to the fatal outcome of disease.[22]
The historian Cardinal Francis Aidan Gasquet wrote about the Great Pestilence in 1893[32] and suggested that it had been "some form of the ordinary Eastern or bubonic plague".[33][b] In 1908, Gasquet said use of the name atra mors for the 14th-century epidemic first appeared in a 1631 book on Danish history by J. I. Pontanus: "Commonly and from its effects, they called it the black death" (Vulgo & ab effectu atram mortem vocitabant).[34][35]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death
Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season and is the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. Many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight[2] or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores' sales continue to Monday ("Cyber Monday") or for a week ("Cyber Week").
"Black Friday" has evolved in meaning and impact over the years, initially referring to calamitous days, with a notable early instance being Black Friday (1869) in the US. This financial crisis saw a dramatic plunge in gold prices, affecting investors. The term was later used in American retail, starting ambiguously in the 1950s. Initially associated with workforce absenteeism post-Thanksgiving, it was reinterpreted by Philadelphia police to describe the shopping-induced congestion. Attempts at rebranding to "Big Friday" failed, and the term "Black Friday" solidified by the 1980s, referring to the pivotal point where retailers purportedly shifted from loss ("in the red") to profit ("in the black"). This day marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season, with promotional sales aiming to draw large crowds. Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States[3][4][5] and retailers prioritize it and Cyber Monday as highly profitable holiday shopping days.[6]
The concept has since globalized, with countries around the world adopting "Black Friday" sales to mimic the U.S. phenomenon, adjusting local customs or creating similar events. The advent of online shopping and events like "Cyber Monday" have expanded the traditional one-day shopping frenzy into a broader holiday shopping season, diluting the singular focus of Black Friday, and expanding its economic impact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)
This is a Black Friday Deal
Inbox
Trump Merch Team Unsubscribe
1:25 PM (2 hours ago)
to me
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. >
A SPECIAL BLACK FRIDAY GIFT FROM TRUMP
William,
On this Black Friday, we have a LIMITED TIME offer for President Trump’s Official Christmas Stocking at a new low price!
This deal only lasts while we still have the stock, so please order ASAP!
CLAIM RED MAGA STOCKING
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. >
CLAIM RED MAGA STOCKING
Thank you,
Team Trump
CLAIM RED MAGA STOCKING
https://secure.winred.com/trump-national-committee-jfc/lp-hf-email-maga-red-stocking-v1?utm_medium=email&utm_source=lp_lp_hf&utm_campaign=20241129_tnc_magaredstocking-v1_hf_dtrump_lp&utm_content=donate&_nlid=VSnF2cvSHb&_nhids=y4Wgsvo1x0
Black project is an informal term used to describe a highly classified, top-secret military or defense project that is not publicly acknowledged by government, military personnel, or contractors.
United States and black projects
In the United States, the formal term for a black project is an unacknowledged special access program (SAP). Black projects receive their funding from the black budget.
The US depends on private defense contractors to develop and build military equipment. The two most notable examples are Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The R&D department of Lockheed Martin is commonly referred to as Skunk Works; it is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified R&D programs, and exotic aircraft platforms.
Two well known sites for testing of black projects are the Nevada Test site and Area 51.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_project
World, the: 1. It is proper to our vocation: to go to diverse places and live in whatever part of the world and to be sent wherever the greater service of God and the help of souls can be hoped for [82, 92, 304, 308, 588, 603, 605, 626, 749]; to this purpose is directed the vow of special obedience to the supreme pontiff regarding missions, FI no. 3 [603, 605], 2 §1; consequently a complete availability, mobility, and universality are necessary, 110, 121 4°, 242 §3, 246 7°, 248, 259, 411; at the service of which is chastity, 144 §2; consequently our community is a community for dispersion, 255 §1, 312, 314 §2, 315, 317; thus also the need for communicating with different cultures of the world and for insertion into them, 99 §2, 106 §2, 110, 111, 246 2°; and for promoting that perfect and open cooperation among the members of the entire Society, of whatever province or region they may be, 396 §2. See also Cooperation, interprovincial and supraprovincial; Culture(s); Insertion 2. God is present in the world: exercising the ministry of healing and reconciliation, 246 4°; thus he is there to be sought and found, 223 §§3-4; the world, in great part afflicted with atheism and injustice and increasingly divided by diverse economic, social, and ethnic systems and by other sources of division and opposition, 59 §2, 223 §3, 246 4° 3. The world, as distinguished from religious life: is to be left behind, trampled underfoot, and renounced [30, 50, 53, 61, 66, 297]; it is to be despised because of the love for and imitation of Christ [101]; contempt for it assists in the union of minds and hearts [671]: customs which smack of the world are not to be introduced, 322.
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts
THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES
SAINT LOUIS, 1996
https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
This Babylonian clay tablet, called Plimpton 322, was created around 1750 BCE in Sumeria, during the reign of Hammurabi the Great.
While more than 1000 years older than Pythagoras, the rows and columns on this table contain Pythagorean triples: integer solutions for the equation a2+b2=c2. For example, (3, 4, 5) is a Pythagorean triple because 32+42=52.
The exact purpose of the tablet has been debated by archeologists. Some think that it was a “teachers aid”, designed to help generate right-angled triangles. Others think it may be a very early trigonometry table.
https://mathigon.org/timeline/plimpton-322
Free
Jefferson Starship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhCubxw46EU&list=RD8WqIGcjVrqY&index=3
Paul Lorin Kantner[1] (March 17, 1941 – January 28, 2016) was an American rock musician. He is best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and a secondary vocalist of Jefferson Airplane, a leading psychedelic rock band of the counterculture era. He continued these roles as a member of Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Airplane's successor band.
Jefferson Airplane was formed in 1965 when Kantner met Marty Balin. Kantner eventually became the leader of the group and led it through its highly successful late-1960s period. In 1970, while still active with Jefferson Airplane, Kantner and several Bay Area musicians recorded the album Blows Against the Empire, which was co-credited to both Paul Kantner and "Jefferson Starship".
Jefferson Airplane continued to record and perform until 1973. Kantner revived the Jefferson Starship name in 1974 and continued to record and perform with them through 1984. He later led a reformed Jefferson Starship from 1992 until his death in 2016. Kantner had the longest continuous membership with the band, with 19 years in the original run of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship and 24 years in the revived Jefferson Starship. At times, he was the only founding Jefferson Airplane member to remain in Jefferson Starship.[2] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Jefferson Airplane in 1996.
Early life
Kantner was born on March 17, 1941, in San Francisco, California,[1] the son of Cora Lee (Fortier) and Paul Schell Kantner. Kantner had a half-brother and a half-sister by his father's first marriage, both much older than he. His father was of German descent, and his mother was of French and German ancestry.[3] His mother died when he was eight years old, and Kantner remembered that he was not allowed to attend her funeral; his father sent him to the circus instead.[2]
After his mother's death, his father, who was a traveling salesman, sent young Kantner to Catholic military boarding school. At the age of eight or nine, in the school's library, he read his first science fiction book, finding an escape by immersing himself in science fiction and music from then on.[2][4][5] As a teenager he went into total revolt against all forms of authority, and he decided to become a protest folk singer in the manner of his musical hero, Pete Seeger.[5]
After graduating from Saint Mary's College High School, he attended the University of Santa Clara (where he first befriended classmate Jorma Kaukonen) and San Jose State College (now San José State University), completing three years of coursework before dropping out to enter the music scene.[2][6] For a while, he shared a communal house in Venice, Los Angeles with several other folk singers who would subsequently transition to rock, including David Crosby and David Freiberg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kantner
Santa Clara University is a private Jesuit university in Santa Clara, California, United States. Established in 1851, Santa Clara University is the oldest operating institution of higher learning in California.[5] The university's campus surrounds the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís which traces its founding to 1777. The campus mirrors the Mission's architectural style and is one of the finest groupings of Mission Revival architecture and other Spanish Colonial Revival styles. The university is classified as a "Doctoral/Professional" university.[6]
The university offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees through its six colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education and Counseling Psychology, Leavey School of Business, School of Engineering, Jesuit School of Theology, and School of Law. It enrolls 6,115 undergraduate students and about 3,063 postgraduate students as of Fall 2022.
Santa Clara's sports teams are called the Broncos. Their colors are red and white. The Broncos compete at the NCAA Division I levels as members of the West Coast Conference in 19 sports. Broncos have won NCAA championships in both men's and women's soccer. Santa Clara's student athletes include current or former 58 MLB,[7] 40 NFL,[8] and 12 NBA players and 13 Olympic gold medalists.
Santa Clara's faculty and alumni include U.S. Senators and House representatives, a Pulitzer Prize winner, numerous billionaires and U.S. governors, a director of the CIA, a U.S. Secretary of Defense, a U.S. secretary of agriculture, a White House press secretary and a United States secretary of homeland security. Santa Clara has Fulbright Scholars as well as 4 Rhodes Scholars.[9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_University
China Wing Kantner (born January 25, 1971)[1] is an American actress in television, theatre and film. She is also a former MTV VJ, sometimes credited on-screen as China Slick Kantner.
Biography
Kantner was born in San Francisco, California, the daughter of two Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship band members, singer Grace Slick (born Grace Wing) and guitarist Paul Kantner.[2] She is a native of San Francisco, living first in the city itself, and later in Mill Valley.[3] She has two older half-brothers, Gareth and Alexander Kantner.[4]
A common misbelief is that her name was originally "god" (with a small "g"), and was only later changed to "China". However, Jeff Tamarkin's 2003 book on the history of Jefferson Airplane, Got a Revolution: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane, explains this resulted from a sardonic remark made by her mother to a nurse.[5]
Later in her MTV career, she was credited simply as "China Kantner". In January 1988, she was interviewed by Jonathan King for the BBC TV show Entertainment USA as part of a feature on the children of rock stars working as MTV VJs. During this interview, she stated that, while she initially did not like her name, she grew to like it as she got older.[6]
She first appeared as an infant on the cover of the Kantner/Slick 1971 solo LP Sunfighter. She has been given co-songwriting credits by her father on several of his songs. She also sang a song on his 1983 album Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Kantner
A famous Jesuit General Michael Angelo Tambourini once boasted, in 1720, to the Duke of Brissac: " See, My Grace [my Lord], from this room, I govern not only Paris, but China; not only China, but the whole world, without anyone knowing how it is managed."
"Andrew Steinmetz, History of the Jesuits, Vol. 1 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lea and Blanchard Publ.,/New York: Richard Bentley, 1848), pp.107, 168-169; see also, Constitution of the Jesuits, edited by Paris Paulin (1843); Eugene Sue (Marie Joseph), The Wandering Jew, (London: Chapman and Hall, 1844/ New York; Harper & Brothers,, 1845), Bk I, Chap. XV, P. 183; see also, p. 618, and Bk. II, p. 21; Abrige de I'Hist. Eccles. de Racine, Chap. xii. P. 77." page 129 Chapter XII "Unhesitating Obedience: The General And The Holy Office"
Codeword Barbelon book One
by P.D. Stuart
"Steinmetz was fourteen years a Jesuit; see also, Constitutions of the Jesuits, ed. by P. Paulin (1843); Morale Pratique Des Jesuites: Histoire De La Persecution De deux Saints, Vol. I (Cologne, 1669), pp. 50 and 51."
"Epilogue-For Such A Time As This"
Pope Francis Lord of the World
by P.D. Stuart
Balin enjoyed painting all his life. He painted many of the most influential musicians of the last half of the 20th century. Marty Balin's Atelier was located at 130 King Fine Art in Saint Augustine, Florida, Balin's permanent signature collection gallery.[19]
Balin resided in Florida and San Francisco with his wife, Susan Joy Balin, formerly Susan Joy Finkelstein. Balin and Finkelstein had two daughters; Susan had previously had two other daughters.
Balin married Karen Deal in 1989. Karen died in 2010.[20]
Health and death
While on tour in March 2016, Balin was taken to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in New York City after complaining of chest pains. After undergoing open-heart surgery, he was transferred to an intensive-care unit to spend time recovering. In a subsequent lawsuit, Balin alleged that neglect and inadequate care facilities on the hospital's part had resulted in a paralyzed vocal cord, loss of his left thumb and half of his tongue, bedsores, and kidney damage.[21]
Balin died at his home in Tampa on September 27, 2018, at the age of 76.[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Balin
Regimini militantis Ecclesiae (Latin for To the Government of the Church Militant) was the papal bull promulgated by Pope Paul III on September 27, 1540, which gave a first approval to the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, but limited the number of its members to sixty."
Regimini militantis Ecclesiae - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regimini_militantis_Ecclesiae
Captain Planet and the Planeteers, commonly referred to as simply Captain Planet, is an American animated environmentalist superhero television series created by Barbara Pyle and Ted Turner[1] and developed by Pyle, Nicholas Boxer, Thom Beers, Andy Heyward, Robby London, Bob Forward, and Cassandra Schafausen. The series was produced by Turner Program Services and DIC Enterprises and broadcast on TBS and in syndication from September 15, 1990, to December 5, 1992.[2]
A sequel series, The New Adventures of Captain Planet, was produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., distributed by Turner Program Services and broadcast from September 11, 1993, to May 11, 1996.[3] The series was later rerun on Kids' WB!, Cartoon Network and Boomerang.[4] It is currently on the MeTV Toons schedule.[5] The series is a form of edutainment that advocates for environmentalism and is known for having several famous actors voice the villains.[6][7] It spawned a franchise consisting of eco-friendly toys, comic books, video games, and a public charity to further promote its work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Planet_and_the_Planeteers
"In the second prelude, for Chief- Gene ral read highest Leader, and for captain read leader. For the first Leader the Spanish Autograph has Captain General, and for the second (leader), caudillo ; the former title expressing, as Father Rothaan remarks, a Commander-in-Chief of lawful warfare, the latter designating rather the leader of a faction, and being often used in a bad sense, as of a captain of robbers or malefactors. In order to express in some measure this distinction, he has made use of the terms Dux Generalis (LeaderGeneral) and CAPUT (head) in his literal Version. The Common Version makes no distinction ; and hence, in order to render this Version with strict faithfulness, must read, both here and in the next two paragraphs, leader instead of captain, although (as the reader will already have perceived) this latter is the term which erceived) this latter is the term which corresponds the more nearly with the Spanish original. In all three places Father Rothaan has caput : in the third prelude he has again Dux instead of Imperator : see above. In the first point, in order to be strictly with the Common Version, readier?/ and smoky chair in stead of chair offire and smoke ; although this latter is what the Autograph has, a certain great chair of fire and smoke, " in which", observes Father Rothaan, there is no solidity, no true glory, but mere agitation and perpetual disturbance joined with thick darkness"; And this image", he adds, " exhibits the evil spirit such as he is, but not such as he offers himself to men's minds."
The Spiritual Exercises of Loyola
https://ia600303.us.archive.org/3/items/a588350800loyouoft/a588350800loyouoft.pdf
The Capetian dynasty (/kəˈpiːʃən/; French: Capétiens), also known as the House of France, is a dynasty of Frankish origin, and a branch of the Robertians. It is among the largest and oldest royal houses in Europe and the world, and consists of Hugh Capet, the founder of the dynasty, and his male-line descendants, who ruled in France without interruption from 987 to 1792, and again from 1814 to 1848. The senior line ruled in France as the House of Capet from the election of Hugh Capet in 987 until the death of Charles IV in 1328. That line was succeeded by cadet branches, the Houses of Valois and then Bourbon, which ruled without interruption until the French Revolution abolished the monarchy in 1792. The Bourbons were restored in 1814 in the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat, but had to vacate the throne again in 1830 in favor of the last Capetian monarch of France, Louis Philippe I, who belonged to the House of Orléans. Cadet branches of the Capetian House of Bourbon house are still ruling over Spain and Luxembourg."
Name origins and usage
The name of the dynasty derives from its founder, Hugh, who was known as "Hugh Capet".[4] The meaning of "Capet" (a nickname rather than a surname of the modern sort) is unknown. While folk etymology identifies it with "cape", other suggestions indicate it might be connected to the Latin word caput ("head"), and explain it as meaning "chief" or "head".[citation needed]
Historians in the 19th century (see House of France) came to apply the name "Capetian" to both the ruling house of France and to the wider-spread male-line descendants of Hugh Capet. It was not a contemporary practice. The name "Capet" has also been used as a surname for French royalty, particularly but not exclusively those of the House of Capet. One notable use was during the French Revolution, when the dethroned King Louis XVI (a member of the House of Bourbon and a direct male-line descendant of Hugh Capet) and Queen Marie Antoinette (a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine) were referred to as "Louis and Antoinette Capet" (the queen being addressed as "the Widow Capet" after the execution of her husband).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capetian_dynasty
St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome is considered the mother church of all the Catholic churches in the Western world; inscribed on the church facade for all to see are the Latin words “omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et CAPUT,” meaning, “The mother and HEAD of all the churches of the city and of the world.”
https://www.simplycatholic.com/st-john-lateran-basilica/
Head:
1. See Illness, mental
2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"
page 463
The CONstitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.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
Revelation 13:18
New International Version
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.
Read full chapter
Footnotes
Revelation 13:18 Or is humanity’s number"
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013
Throughout Zoroastrian history, shrines and temples have been the focus of worship and pilgrimage for adherents of the religion. Early Zoroastrians were recorded as worshiping in the 5th century BCE on mounds and hills where fires were lit below the open skies.[58] In the wake of Achaemenid expansion, shrines were constructed throughout the empire and particularly influenced the role of Mithra, Aredvi Sura Anahita, Verethragna and Tishtrya, alongside other traditional Yazata who all have hymns within the Avesta and also local deities and culture-heroes. Today, enclosed and covered fire temples tend to be the focus of community worship where fires of varying grades are maintained by the clergy assigned to the temples.[59]
The incorporation of cultural and local rituals is quite common and traditions have been passed down in historically Zoroastrian communities such as herbal healing practices, wedding ceremonies, and the like.[60][61][31] Traditionally, Zoroastrian rituals have also included shamanic elements involving mystical methods such as spirit travel to the invisible realm and involving the consumption of fortified wine, Haoma, mang, and other ritual aids.[62][33][63][64][65]
In Zoroastrianism, water (aban) and fire (atar) are agents of ritual purity, and the associated purification ceremonies are considered the basis of ritual life. In Zoroastrian cosmogony, water and fire are respectively the second and last primordial elements to have been created, and scripture considers fire to have its origin in the waters (re. which conception see Apam Napat). Both water and fire are considered life-sustaining, and both water and fire are represented within the precinct of a fire temple. Zoroastrians usually pray in the presence of some form of fire (which can be considered evident in any source of light), and the culminating rite of the principal act of worship constitutes a "strengthening of the waters". Fire is considered a medium through which spiritual insight and wisdom are gained, and water is considered the source of that wisdom. Both fire and water are also hypostasized as the Yazatas Atar and Anahita, with worship hymns and litanies dedicated to them.[citation needed]
A corpse is considered a host for decay, i.e., of druj. Consequently, scripture enjoins the safe disposal of the dead in a manner such that a corpse does not pollute the good creation. These injunctions are the doctrinal basis of the fast-fading traditional practice of ritual exposure, most commonly identified with the so-called Towers of Silence for which there is no standard technical term in either scripture or tradition. Ritual exposure is currently mainly practiced by Zoroastrian communities of the Indian subcontinent, in locations where it is not illegal and diclofenac poisoning has not led to the virtual extinction of scavenger birds. Other Zoroastrian communities either cremate their dead, or bury them in graves that are cased with lime mortar.[citation needed]
The central ritual of Zoroastrianism is the Yasna, which is a recitation of the eponymous book of the Avesta and sacrificial ritual ceremony involving Haoma.[67] Extensions to the Yasna ritual are possible through use of the Visperad and Vendidad, but such an extended ritual is rare in modern Zoroastrianism.[68][69] The Yasna itself descended from Indo-Iranian sacrificial ceremonies and animal sacrifice of varying degrees are mentioned in the Avesta and are still practiced in Zoroastrianism albeit through reduced forms such as the sacrifice of fat before meals.[70] High rituals such as the Yasna are considered to be the purview of the Mobads with a corpus of individual and communal rituals and prayers included in the Khordeh Avesta.[67][71]
A Zoroastrian is welcomed into the faith through the Navjote/Sedreh Pushi ceremony, which is traditionally conducted during the later childhood or pre-teen years of the aspirant, though there is no defined age limit for the ritual.[31][72] After the ceremony, Zoroastrians are encouraged to wear their sedreh (ritual shirt) and kusti (ritual girdle) daily as a spiritual reminder and for mystical protection, though reformist Zoroastrians tend to only wear them during festivals, ceremonies, and prayers.[73][31][72]
Historically, Zoroastrians are encouraged to pray the five daily Gāhs and to maintain and celebrate the various holy festivals of the Zoroastrian calendar, which can differ from community to community.[74][75] Zoroastrian prayers, called manthras, are conducted usually with hands outstretched in imitation of Zoroaster's prayer style described in the Gathas and are of a reflectionary and supplicant nature believed to be endowed with the ability to banish evil.[76][77][52] Devout Zoroastrians are known to cover their heads during prayer, either with traditional topi, scarves, other headwear, or even just their hands. However, full coverage and veiling which is traditional in Islamic practice is not a part of Zoroastrianism and Zoroastrian women in Iran wear their head coverings displaying hair and their faces to defy mandates by the Islamic Republic of Iran.[78]
Late antiquity
As late as the Parthian period, a form of Zoroastrianism was without a doubt the dominant religion in the Armenian lands.[115] The Sassanids aggressively promoted the Zurvanite form of Zoroastrianism, often building fire temples in captured territories to promote the religion. During the period of their centuries-long suzerainty over the Caucasus, the Sassanids made attempts to promote Zoroastrianism there with considerable successes, and it was prominent in the pre-Christian Caucasus (especially modern-day Azerbaijan).[citation needed]
Due to its ties to the Christian Roman Empire, Persia's arch-rival since Parthian times, the Sassanids were suspicious of Roman Christianity, and after the reign of Constantine the Great, sometimes persecuted it.[116] In 451 CE, The Sassanid authority clashed with their Armenian subjects in the Battle of Avarayr, making them officially break with the Roman Church. But the Sassanids tolerated or even sometimes favored the Christianity of the Church of the East. The acceptance of Christianity in Georgia (Caucasian Iberia) saw the Zoroastrian religion there slowly but surely decline,[117] but as late the 5th century CE, it was still widely practised as something like a second established religion.[118][119]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
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
Fourteenth Rule. Although there is much truth in the assertion that no one can save himself without being predestined and without having faith and grace; we must be very cautious in the manner of speaking and communicating with others about all these things.
The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YC_luOfFWl0Bm0BWkbANKZGC1kkmdHQf/view?usp=sharing
Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[b] 17 December 1936) is head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian pope Gregory III.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked for a time as a bouncer and a janitor as a young man before training to be a chemist and working as a technician in a food science laboratory. After recovering from a severe illness of pneumonia and cysts, he was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina. The administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival.
Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor, and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He is credited with having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis
Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal SJ (born 12 November 1948) is a Venezuelan Catholic priest who serves as the 31st and present superior general of the Society of Jesus. He was elected by the Society's 36th General Congregation on 14 October 2016, succeeding Adolfo Nicolás. He is the first person born in Latin America to lead the Jesuits.
Early life and education
Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 12 November 1948,[1] the son of Arturo Sosa, Sr. a prestigious businessman who served twice as finance minister in 1958 and 1982.[2] He entered the Society of Jesus in 1966 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1977.[1] He earned a licentiate in philosophy from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in 1972, and a doctorate in political science from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1990.[3][4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Sosa
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
https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
PARTICULAR AND DAILY EXAMEN It contains in it three times, and two to examine oneself. The first time is in the morning, immediately on rising, when one ought to propose to guard himself with diligence against that particular sin or defect which he wants to correct and amend. The second time is after dinner, when one is to ask of God our Lord what one wants, namely, grace to remember how many times he has fallen into that particular sin or defect, and to amend himself in the future. Then let him make the first Examen, asking account of his soul of that particular thing proposed, which he wants to correct and amend. Let him go over hour by hour, or period by period, commencing at the hour he rose, and continuing up to the hour and instant of the present examen, and let him make in the first line of the G------- as many dots as were the times he has fallen into that particular sin or defect. Then let him resolve anew to amend himself up to the second Examen which he will make. The third time: After supper, the second Examen will be made, in the same way, hour by hour, commencing at the first Examen and continuing up to the present (second) one, and let him make in the second line of the same G------- as many dots as were the times he has fallen into that particular sin or defect. FOUR ADDITIONS FOLLOW TO RID ONESELF SOONER OF THAT PARTICULAR SIN OR DEFECT First Addition. The first Addition is that each time one falls into that particular sin or defect, let him put his hand on his breast, grieving for having fallen: which can be done even in the presence of many, without their perceiving what he is doing. Second Addition. The second: As the first line of the G------- means the first Examen, and the second line the second Examen, let him look at night if there is amendment from the first line to the second, that is, from the first Examen to the second. Third Addition. The third: To compare the second day with the first; that is, the two Examens of the present day with the other two Examens of the previous day, and see if he has amended himself from one day to the other. Fourth Addition. The fourth Addition: To compare one week with another, and see if he has amended himself in the present week over the week past. Note. It is to be noted that the first (large) G------- which follows means the Sunday: the second (smaller), the Monday: the third, the Tuesday, and so on.
GGGGGG
"The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola
TRANSLATED FROM
THE AUTOGRAPH
BY
FATHER ELDER MULLAN, S.J.
I.H.S.
NEW YORK
P.J. KENEDY & SONS
PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE
https://ia800303.us.archive.org/3/items/a588350800loyouoft/a588350800loyouoft.pdf
THE FOURTH, or iron, kingdom symbolised the great EMPIRE OF ROME, which was to exist in two different stages : the first united with a strength like that of iron, which would devour the whole earth and break it in pieces ; the second divided into ten, the iron sharing the weakness of clay. The first or unbroken stage covers a period of about six centuries, from the conquests of Scipio, Sylla, and Pompey to the fall of the last emperor of Rome, Romulus Augustulus, A.D. 476. Jerome at the beginning of the fifth century clearly perceived, not only the fulfilment of the first part of the pre diction, but the commencement of the second, which was observable even in his day, though abundantly more clear afterwards. He says : " But the fourth kingdom, which clearly relates to the Ro-mans, is iron, which breaks in pieces and subdues all things. But its feet and toes are in part iron and in part clay ; which is proved very plainly at this time (A.D. 400). For as in the beginning nothing was harder and stronger than the Roman empire, so in the end of things nothing is weaker." Marvellous was the announcement in the days when it was given, betore even Greece had risen into notice, and when Italy was the home of only a few feeble and constantly warring tribes, that an empire born among those barbarians was to extend its sway over the East, and be endued with a firmness of which oriental monarchs knew nothing. So little known was Rome even two hundred years later that Herodotus, in describing the earth with all its towns and cities, rivers and mountains, etc., never once mentions either the city of Rome or the Tiber on which it stands. For five centuries from its foundation there was very little indication that the Roman power would ever become a great one. Even when the empire of Alexander was falling into decay, Rome was nearly brought to destruction by the Punic wars ; and not till just before the end of the Macedonian monarchy were the Romans sufficiently free from domestic enemies to enter on a career of conquest. But then indeed it fulfilled to the letter the remarkable predictions in the prophecy, carried its victorious arms throughout the world by conquest, and by its singular power of governing subdued all nations and attained dimensions that had never before been equalled, and a degree of power which has never been paralleled since. When the victories of Trajan carried the power of Rome to its height, all nations were merely vassals to the mistress of the world. Gibbon s description of the might and majesty of the Roman empire should be read in the light of the pro phecy in order to a real appreciation of the wonderful fulfil ment of the latter. After reviewing in detail the different countries subjected to its sway, he says : " This long enumeration of provinces, whose broken frag-ments have formed so many powerful kingdoms, might almost induce us to forgive the vanity or ignorance of the ancients. Dazzled with the extensive sway, the irresistible strength, and the real or affected moderation of the emperors, they permitted themselves to despise, and sometimes to forget, the outlying countries which had been left in the enjoyment of a barbarous independence ; and they gradually usurped the licence of confounding the Roman monarchy with the globe of the earth. . . . That empire was above two thousand miles in breadth, from the wall of Antoninus and the nor thern limits of Dacia to Mount Atlas, and the Tropic of Cancer. It extended, in length, more than three thousand miles from the Western Ocean to the Euphrates. It was supposed to contain above sixteen hundred thousand square miles, for the most part of fertile and well-cultivated land. The arms of the republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube, the Rhine, and the ocean ; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that might serve to repre sent the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron monarchy of Rome. " The empire of the Romans filled the world ; and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of imperial despotism, whether condemned to drag his gilded chain in Rome and the senate, or to wear out a life of exile on the barren rock of Seriphus, or the frozen banks of the Danube, expected his fate in silent despair. To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On every side he was encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never hope to traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored to his irritated master. Beyond the frontiers his anxious view could discover nothing except the ocean, inhospitable deserts, and hostile tribes of barbarians of fierce manners and unknown language, or dependent who would gladly purchase the Emperor s protection by the sacrifice of an obnoxious fugitive." l We have seen that Daniel s fourfold image and the vision of the four beasts both represent the Roman power as con tinuing in existence up to the time of the second advent, and as being destroyed and succeeded only by it. They represent the fourth, or Roman empire, as rising on the fall of the Grecian, and as occupying the whole interval between that date and the close of the times of the Gentiles. There is no break or gap in the image, and the fourth beast it is distinctly said continues //// the establishment of the kingdom of the Son of man and of the saints.2 Now the old empire of Rome ended in the fifth century ; has any other form of power exercised from Rome arisen, and is it now in existence, and has this revived power of Rome been exercised over a commonwealth of ten king doms ? This is evidently an exceedingly interesting and most important part of our inquiry into the fulfilment of this Daniel programme, because if history has realized this part of the foreview as exactly as the former portion, the fulfil ment must embrace our own times, since the tenfold condition of the Roman world is to continue to the end of the age. Now it is one thing to read of a fulfilment in the past, and another to see it with our own eyes in the present. The Canon of Ptolemy and Gibbon s history of the Decline and Fall are doubtless good and trustworthy evidence ; but, after all, "seeing is believing," and there is nothing like experience for producing conviction. Present phenomena must needs impress the mind more than past ; hence the importance of the inquiry, Was the Roman world divided into ten kingdoms on the fall of the empire ? Has this division continued from that day to this clearly traceable ? Is it evident even now ? What were the ten kingdoms at first ? What have they been ever since ? and what are they at present ? The answer to these inquiries is profoundly interesting, because among other reasons it must needs afford an indication of our pre sent position in the stream of time with regard to the second advent. That indication may be to some extent indefinite, but it must be there, and it is the clearest information on the all-important subject which is attainable. The programme presents five episodes the four empires and the tenfold commonwealth and then follows the second advent. The four empires are past. When we have examined history on the subject of the tenfold commonwealth, we shall see how much of that is also past, and be able to judge to some extent how much remains ; and this, though not the main object of our investigation, is a deeply interesting incidental result. To trace the fulfilment of the prophecy as an evi dence of the inspiration of Scripture is our object ; but who can fail to welcome any light on the subject of our Lord s return ? The first question that arises for consideration is, In what sphere are we to look for the ten kingdoms ? Shall we seek for them in the whole extent of the Roman empire at the time of its widest dominion ? or in that part of its territory which was properly Roman as distinguished from the countries belonging to previous empires subjugated by Rome ? A very little consideration will show that prophecy regards the four empires as being as distinct in territory as in time ; as distinct in geographical boundaries as in chronological limits. They rise in a definite sequence; the supreme dominion of one does not in point of time overlap the supreme dominion of the following one, nor is the territory of a former "beast" or empire ever regarded as belonging to a later one, though it may have been actually conquered. Each has its own proper theatre or body, and the bodies continue to exist after the dominion is taken away. This is distinctly stated, both in connection with the fourfold image and with the four beasts. In the first case the stone falls upon the clay and iron feet only, but the iron legs, the brazen body, the silver breast, and the golden head, are all by it " broken to pieces togetJier" Now the empires repre sented by these have long since passed away. They cannot therefore be " broken to pieces " by the second advent. But the territory once occupied by them is still existing and still populous, and exposed to the judgments of the day of Christ just as much as Rome itself. Similarly we read that the three earlier beasts did not cease to exist when the fourth arose. " Their dominion was taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time." 1 That is to say, the first three empires are re garded as co-existing with the fourth after their dominion has ended. This proves that they are regarded as distinct in place as well as in time. They continue to be recognised as territorial divisions of the earth after the disappearance of their political supremacy. Now the eastern empire of Rome which it acquired by conquest occupied precisely the same territory as the Grecian empire had done, and its conquests in Asia occupied the territories which originally formed the Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires. None of this territory belongs to " the legs of iron." It constitutes the golden, silver, and brazen portions of the image. It can not be regarded as forming any part of the empire proper and peculiar to Rome. The ten horns or kingdoms of the fourth empire must none of them be sought in the realms of the third, second, or first, but exclusively in the realm of the fourth, or in the territory PECULIAR to ROME, and which had never formed part either of the Grecian, Medo-Persian, or Babylonian empires. Sir Isaac Newton says on this point : " Seeing body of the third beast is confined to the nations on this side the Euphrates, and the body of the fourth beast is con fined to the nations on this side of Greece, we are to look for all the four heads of the third beast among the nations on this side the Euphrates, and for all the eleven horns of the fourth beast among the nations on this side of Greece. Therefore we do not reckon the Greek empire seated at Constantinople among the horns of the fourth beast, because it belonged to the body of the third." Our question then becomes more definite and takes this form Was the territory peculiar to Route, the territory which is sometimes spoken of as the Western Empire, and of which Rome itself was the capital, divided on the fall of the old empire into ten kingdoms? It is notorious that such was the case. From the rise of the Roman empire to its fall in the fifth century it was one and undivided ; since its decline and fall as an empire, the territory peculiar to Rome has been broken up into many independent sovereignties, bound to gether into the one family of Latin Christendom by a common submission to the popes of Rome. The number of distinct kingdoms has always been about ten at times exactly ten, sinking at intervals to eight or nine, rising occasionally to twelve or thirteen, but averaging on the whole ten. The prophecy distinctly predicted that the number would not be constantly or invariably ten. It represents a little horn springing up among the ten, then there must have been eleven. It represents that three of the horns were plucked up before this little horn, then there could have been for a time ei^ht o only. Fresh horns must however have taken the place of the uprooted ones, for at the close of the beast s history the number is represented as still ten. Hence the number of the kingdoms was to be generally, but not rigidly or unvaryingly, ten ; there would as a rule throughout the whole period be ten kingdoms, occupying the sphere of the western empire of Rome ; but the number would be elastic, sometimes less, sometimes more, but always about ten, so that no other number of horns would as correctly represent the facts of the case. Alexander s empire was re presented by one notable horn, the dynasties that arose amidst its broken fragments by four horns ; but Rome was to break up into a larger number, and ten different kingdoms would appear upon the scene, and occupy even till the end, the territory belonging to the fourth beast, still having Rome as in some sort their centre and bond of union, for they were to be horns of the Roman beast. Such are the symbols, and they are the more remarkable because they foretell a state of things which had never existed in the world at the time when the prophecy was given, and which never did exist till a thousand years after wards. Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome in its first phase, all sought and obtained unii crsal dominion, and could brook no rival power. The prophecy foretold that in the distant future another state of things should arise, and that co-exist ing side by side, a family of ten kingdoms should divide the heritage of Rome, and while no longer in subjection to it as provinces, should yet, as independent kingdoms, continue to have a common connection with Rome. The fact that the portion of the prophecy devoted to the detailed history of these horns is two or three times as long as that devoted to the history of the undivided empire, suggests that their actual history might probably extend over a much longer period than that of the undivided empire ; and there is no question that they continue in existence until the coming of Christ, and the establishment of His millennial kingdom. They rise on the fall of tlie empire, for there is no gap in the image, and no break in the continuity of the history of the fourth beast, no indication whatever that any interval is to exist between the united and the dismembered con ditions of the Roman world. The iron legs run right on the ten toes, and the story of the beast is continued without a break in the story of the ten horns. What now have been the facts of history ? Was the Roman empire on its fall divided into a number of separate kingdoms, and has it continued to be so ever since ? Has the number of such kingdoms averaged ten ? Have they retained a common connection with Rome ? And how many such kingdoms now occupy the scene ? The ten kingdoms must first of course be sought among the Gothic dynasties of the fifth and sixth centuries by which the empire of the West was overthrown ; and then at intervals ever since. Should we find that Europe has for ages been united under one monarch, or should we on the other hand find that it has been divided as a rule into thirty or forty kingdoms, we shall be driven to conclude that the prophecy has failed of fulfilment. But should we on the contrary find that amid incessant changes the number of the kingdoms of the European commonwealth has, as a rule, averaged ten, we must surely admit tuat this portion of the prophecy is as much fulfilled as the earlier portion of the four undivided empires. What further evidence of fulfilment can be desired, than that the thing predicted has come to pass ? As it would be impossible to note the exact number o f kingdoms for each year of the thirteen or fourteen centuries which have since elapsed, we must content ourselves with taking a census each century. The historian Machiavel, without the slightest reference to t/iis prophecy, gives the following list of the nations whid* occupied the territory of the Western Empire at the timf. of the fall of Romulus Augustulus, the last emperor of Rome. The Lombards, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Ostro goths, the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Heruli, the Sueves, the Huns, and the Saxons ; ten in all.
After a time the Huns disappeared, but other powers arose and obtained a home in the domains of old Rome. The changes were incessant, as horde after horde of barbarian invaders pressed in on every side to share the spoils ; but still the number of established kingdoms was again and again ten. It never rose to twenty or thirty, it never fell to two or three. Charlemagne in his day reduced it for a time, and attempted, like Napoleon in a later age, to restore unity; both utterly failed, and after a very few years the normal ten kingdoms reappeared. The following list gives the contemporary kingdoms ex isting in Western Europe at intervals of a hundred years apart, from the Qth to the iQth centuries. It is extracted from a much longer series in " The Four Prophetic Empires," by the Rev. T. R. Birks, and is introduced by the remark that a measure of uncertainty must exist as to whether some of the States should be included, as " it is sometimes doubt ful whether a kingdom can claim an independent sovereignty on account of the complex and varying nature of its political relations." But as exactly as it can be estimated from the records of history, the following lists present the members of the family of kingdoms as they appeared from century to century. Where a note of interrogation follows a name, it implies that there are some elements of doubt as to whether it should be included or not. A.D. 860. Italy, Provence, Lorraine, East France, West France, Exarchate, Venice, Navarre, England, Scotland. Total, 10. A.D. 950. Germany, Burgundy, Lombardy, Exarchate, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Navarre, Leon. Total, 10. A.D. 1050. Germany, Exarchate, Venice, Norman Italy, France, England, Scot land, Arragon, Castile, Normandy (?), Hungary (?). Total, 9 to 11.
A.D. 1150. Germany, Naples, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Cas tile, Portugal, Hungary, Lombardy (?). Total, 10, or perhaps n. A.D. 1250. Germany and Naples, Venice, Lombardy, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Hungary. Total, 10. A.D. 1350. Germany, Naples, Venice, Switzerland (?), Milan (?), Tuscany (?), France, England and Scotland, Arragon, Castile, Portugal, Hungary. Total, 9 to 12. A.D. 1453. Austria, Naples, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Arragon, Cas tile, Portugal, Hungary, Switzerland (?), Savoy (?), Milan (?), Tus cany (?). Total, 1 1 to 14. A.D. 1552. Austria, Venice, France, England, Scotland, Spain, Naples, Portugal, Hungary, Switzerland (?), Lombardy (?). Total, 9 to 11. A.D. 1648. Austria, Venice, France, Britain (?), Spain and Naples, Portugal,. Hungary, Switzerland (?), Savoy, Tuscany, Holland. Total, 8 to 11. A.D. 1750. Austria and Hungary, France, Savoy and Sardinia, Venice, Tuscany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland (?), Naples (?), Britain (?), Holland. Total, 8 to ii. A.D. 1816. Austria, Bavaria, Wurtemburg (?), Naples, Tuscany, Sardinia, Lom bardy (?), France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Britain (?), Switzer land (?). Total, 9 to 13.
An examination of this list reveals the surprising fact, which would only become more apparent were the list lengthened ten times, so as to present a census of each de cade instead of each century, that, amidst unceasing and al most countless fluctuations, the kingdoms of modern Europe have from their birth to the present day averaged ten in number. They have never since the break-up of old Rome been united into one single empire; they have never formed one ivhole even like the United States. No scheme of proud ambition seeking- to reunite the broken fragments has ever succeeded ; when such have arisen, they have been invariably dashed to pieces. Witness the legions of Napoleon buried beneath the snows of Russia, the armadas of Spain wrecked by Atlantic storms, and all the futile royal marriage arrange ments by which monarchs vainly sought to create a revived empire. In spite of all human effort, in defiance of every attempt at reunion, the European commonwealth for thirteen or fourteen centuries lias numbered on an average ten king doms. And the division is as apparent now as ever ! Plainly and palpably inscribed on the map of Europe this day, it confronts the sceptic with its silent but conclusive testimony to the fulfilment of this great prophecy. Who can alter or add to this tenfold list of the kingdoms now occupying the sphere ol old Rome ? ITALY, AUSTRIA, SWITZERLAND, FRANCE, GERMANY, ENGLAND, HOLLAND, BELGIUM, SPAIN, and PORTUGAL. Ten, and no more ; ten, and no less ! The Franco-Prus sian war and the unification of Italy have once more developed distinctly the normal number of the kingdoms of Europe. Nor is this all. The most marked feature of this prophecy is neither the four beasts nor the ten horns of the fourth, but the little horn with eyes and mouth that came up amongthem ; it is neither the four empires nor the ten kingdoms, but the one supremely influential and singularly wicked dynasty that rises with, and rules over, the latter ; exalts itself, blasphemes God, wears out His saints, and ultimately brings down Divine judgment on the beast and all his horns, itself included ; i.e., on apostate Latin Christendom, and its centre ROME. What was this little horn ? To answer this question we ask another. What was the central ruling power in the European commonwealth of nations throughout the thousand years of the dark ages from the sixth to the sixteenth cen turies ? It was a power that ruled from Rome as did the Caesars. It was the succession of Roman pontiffs, the line of tiara-crowned monarchs who for more than twelve cen turies governed papal Rome; who ranked as temporal sove reigns as well as high priests in the Church, and who united under their sway the separate kingdoms of Latin Christen dom. Every feature of the prophecy was fulfilled in their dynasty, and in no other. Those features are six in number. The prophecy lays its finger on the place where we are to. find the great enemy Rome ; on the point of time in the course of history at which we may expect to see him rise the fall of the empire and the division of the Roman territory into a commonwealth of kingdoms ; it specifies the nature of the power politico-ecclesiastical, a horn, and yet an over seer or bishop ; its character blasphemously self-exalting, lawless, and persecuting; it measures its duration 1 a time, and times, and the dividing of time " (or 1,260 years) ; and it specifies its doojii to have its dominion gradually consumed and taken away, and then be suddenly destroyed for ever by the glorious epiphany of Christ and the introduction of the kingdom of God on earth. The proof that the Papacy is the power intended is strictly cumulative. If it answered to one of these indications, there would be a slight presumption against it ; if to several, a strong one ; if to the majority, an overwhelming one ; while if it answer to all, then the proof that it is the power in tended becomes irresistible. There is not a single clause in the prophecy that cannot be proved to fit the Roman Papacy exactly, except the last, which is not yet fulfilled. Rome, which in her pagan phase defiled and destroyed the literal temple of God at Jerusalem, in her papal days defiled and destroyed the anti-typical spiritual temple of God the Christian Church. Was it not worthy of God to warn that Church beforehand of the coming of this dreadful anti-Chris-tian power, and to cheer her in all the sufferings she would have to endure from its tyranny by a knowledge of the issue of the great and terrible drama ? Was it. not right that the Roman power, pagan and papal, should occupy as paramount a place on the page of Scripture as it has actually done on the page of history ? The eighteen Christian centuries lay open before the eye of the omniscient God, and no figure stood out so prominently in all their long course as that of the great antichrist. The pen of inspiration sketched him in a few bold, masterly strokes; and there is no mistaking the por trait. The prophecy identifies the greatest power of evil that has ever arisen in the earth, and unmasks the most treacherous and deceptive foe which the Church has ever had to meet ; for if the ten horns be the kingdoms of modern Europe, there can be no question as to what the little horn is. Throughout Wes tern Europe and throughout the dark ages all men reverenced, served, and obeyed the popes of Rome, whose dominion was exceeding evil, and whose pretension was the blasphemous one to be quasi Dens as God on earth. The idolatry of ancient Babylon was revived under this modern Babylon in another form, and the judgment that descended on the former will ere long descend on the latter according to this prophecy. We must, however, refer to another work for the full expo sition of the subject, as space forbids our going further into it here. 1
The Divine Programme of The World's History
H. Grattan Guinness
https://neohistoricism.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/1892-the-divine-programme-of-the-worlds-history-h-gratton-guinness.pdf
[529] C. 1The entire purport of this fourth vow of obedience to the pope was and is with regard to missions; 2and this is how the bulls should be understood where they speak of this obedience in all that the sovereign pontiff may command and wherever he may send one, and so on."
The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms
"Historical Institute of the Society of Jesus: a ROMAN work of the entire Society, 304 §2"
The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms
https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf
Caput Mundi is a Latin phrase which literally means "Head of the world" whereas Roma Caput Mundi means "Rome capital of the world" and is one of the many nicknames given to the city of Rome throughout its history.[1]
The phrase is related to the enduring power of the city first as the capital of the Republic and the Empire, and later as the centre of the Catholic Church.[2]
Although it is not known for sure when it was first used, Rome was already named in this way by the poet Ovid in 1st century BC.[3]
Along with "Eternal City" and the "City of Seven Hills", Caput Mundi remains as one of the most commonly used names to refer to the city of Rome.[4]
Meaning
Via dei Fori Imperiali, Via della Conciliazione and Via del Corso. The term First Rome is used to refer to the "Rome of the Emperors", Second Rome refers to the "Rome of the Popes", and third Rome refers to the "Rome of the people" advocated by Giuseppe Mazzini as the capital of a democratic and republican Italy.[5]
Roma Caput Mundi is a Latin phrase taken to mean "Rome capital of the world" and "Roma capitale del mondo" in Italian (literally: "head of the world").[6] It originates out of a classical European understanding of the known world: Europe, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. The influence of Rome in the ancient world began to grow around the 2nd century BC as the Republic expanded across Southern Europe and North Africa. For the next five centuries, Rome governed much of the known world (of traditional Greco-Roman geography) and served as the world's largest city during that period. The cultural influence of the local language of Rome (Latin) as well as Roman art, architecture, law, religion, and philosophy was significant. The Imperial city of Rome adopted as its nickname Caput Mundi, attributing this to its perception of an enduring power of Ancient Rome and the Catholic Church.[7][8][9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caput_Mundi
Revelation 13:16-18
1599 Geneva Bible
16 [a]And he made all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive [b]a [c]mark in their right hand or in their foreheads.
17 And that no man might [d]buy or sell, save he that had the [e]mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18 [f]Here is wisdom. Let him that hath wit, count the number of the beast: for it is the [g]number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six.
Read full chapter
Footnotes
Revelation 13:16 The third place, is a most wicked and most insolent tyrrany as was said before, usurped over the persons of men in this verse: and over their goods and actions, in the next verse. For he is said, both to bring upon all persons a tyrannous servitude, that as bondslaves they might serve the beast: and also to exercise over all their goods and actions, a peddler-like abuse of indulgences and dispensations (as they term them) amongst their friends, and against others to use most violent interdictions, and to shoot out cursings, even in natural and civil, private and public contracts, wherein all good faith ought to have place.
Revelation 13:16 That is, their Chrism, by which in the Sacrament (as they call it) of Confirmation, they make servile unto themselves, the persons and doings of men, signing them in their forehead and hands: and as for the sign left by Christ (of which Rev. 7:3) and the holy Sacrament of Baptism they make as void. For whom Christ hath joined unto himself by Baptism, this beast maketh challenge unto them by her greasy Chrism, which he doubteth not to prefer over Baptism, both in authority and efficacy.
Revelation 13:16 The mark of the name of the beast.
Revelation 13:17 That is, have any traffic or intercourse with men, but they only those which have this anointing and consecration of Clearkely tonsure, as they call it. Read Gratian de Consecratione, distinct. s. c. omnes, cap. Spiritus, etc. of these matters.
Revelation 13:17 Here the false Prophets do require three things, which are set down in the order of their greatness, a character, a name and the number of the name. The meaning is, that man that hath not first their anointing and clerical tonsure or shaving: secondly holy orders, by reserving whereof is communicated the same of the beast: or finally hath not attained that high degree of Pontifical knowledge, and of the Law (as they call it) Canonical, and hath not as it were made up in account and cast the number of the mysteries thereof: for in these things consisteth the number of that name of the beast. And this is excellently set forth in the next verse.
Revelation 13:18 That is in this number of the beast consisteth that Popish wisdom, which unto them seemeth the greatest of all others. In these words S. John expoundeth that saying which went before of the number of the beast, what it hath above his mark or acconisance and his name. These things, saith S. John, the mark and the name of the beast, do easily happen unto any man: but to have the number of the beast, is wisdom: that is, only the wise and such as have understanding, can come by that number for they must be most illuminated doctors that attain thereunto, as the words following do declare.
Revelation 13:18 How great and of what denomination this number of the beast is, by which the beast accounted his wisdom, S. John declareth in these words. Dost thou demand how great it is? it is so great, that it occupieth the whole man: he is always learning, and never cometh to the knowledge thereof: he must be a man indeed that doth attain unto it. Askest thou of what denomination it is? verily it standeth of six throughout and perfectly ariseth of all the parts thereof in their several denominations (as they term them) it standeth of six by units, tens, hundreds, etc. so as there is no one part in the learning and order Pontifical, which is not either referred unto the head, and as it were the top thereof, or contained in the same: so fitly do all things in this hierarchy agree one with another, and with their head. Therefore that cruel beast Boniface the eighth doth commend by the number of six those Decretals which he perfected, in the proem of the sixth book. Which book (saith he) being to be added unto five other books of the same volume of Decretals, we thought good to name Sextum the sixth: that the same volume by addition thereof containing a senary, or the number of six books (which is a number perfect) may yield a perfect form of managing all things, and perfect discipline of behavior. Here therefore is the number of the beast, who poureth from himself all his parts and bringeth them all back again unto himself by his discipline in most wise and cunning manner. If any man desire more of this, let him read the gloss upon that place. I am not ignorant that other interpretations are brought upon this place: but I thought it my duty, with the good favor of all and without the offense of any, to propound mine opinion in this point. And for this cause especially, for that it seemed unto me neither profitable, nor like to be true, that the number of the beast, or of the name of the beast should be taken as the common sort of interpreters do take it. For this number of the beast teacheth, giveth out, imprinteth, as a public mark of such as be his, and esteemeth that mark above all others as the mark of those whom he loveth best. Now those other expositions seem rather to be far removed from this property and condition of that number: whether you respect the name Latinus or Titan, or another. For these the beast doth not teach, nor give forth nor imprint, but most diligently forbiddeth to be taught, and audaciously denieth: he approveth not these, but reproveth them: and hateth them that think so of this number, with an hatred, greater than that of Vatinius.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2017&version=GNV
Revelation 17:9-18
1599 Geneva Bible
9 [a]Here is the mind that hath wisdom, The [b]seven heads [c]are seven mountains, whereon the woman sitteth: [d]they are also seven Kings.
10 [e]Five are fallen, [f]and one is, [g]and another is not yet come: and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
11 [h]And the beast that was, and is not, is even [i]the eighth, and is [j]one of the seven, and [k]all go into destruction.
12 [l]And the ten horns which thou sawest, are [m]ten kings, which yet have not received a kingdom, but shall receive power, as Kings [n]at one hour with the beast.
13 [o]These have one mind, and shall give their power and authority unto the beast.
14 These shall fight with the [p]Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings: and they that are on his side, called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 [q]And he said unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, [r]are people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten [s]horns which thou sawest upon the beast, are they that shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 [t]For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to do with one consent for to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God be fulfilled.
18 And that woman which thou sawest, is that [u]great city which reigned over the kings of the earth.
Read full chapter
Footnotes
Revelation 17:9 An exhortation preparing unto audience, by the same argument, with that of Christ: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Wherefore, for mine own part, I had rather read in this place, Let there be here a mind, etc. So the Angel passeth fully unto the second place of this description.
Revelation 17:9 Very children know what that seven hilled city is, which is so much spoken of, and whereof Virgil thus reporteth, And compasseth seven towers in one wall: that city it is, which when John wrote these things had rule over the kings of the earth: It was and is not, and yet it remaineth this day, but it is declining to destruction.
Revelation 17:9 This is the painting out of the beast by things present (as I said before) whereby S. John endeavored to describe the same, that he might both be known of the godly in that age, and be further observed and marked of posterity afterwards. This delineation hath one type, that is, his heads, but a double description or application of the type: one permanent from the nature of itself, the other changeable, by the working of men. The description permanent, is by the seven hills, in this verse, the other that fleeteth, is from the seven kings, verses 10, 11. And here it is worthy to be observed, that one type hath sometimes two or more applications, as seemeth good unto the holy Ghost to express either one thing by divers types, or divers things by one type. So I noted before, of the seven spirits, Rev. 1:4. Now this woman that sitteth upon seven hills, is the city of Rome, called in times past of the Greeks, … i. of seven tops or crests, and of Varro, septiceps, i. of her seven heads (as here) of seven heads, and of others, septicollis, i. standing upon seven hills.
Revelation 17:9 The beginning of these Kings or Emperors is almost the same with the beginning of the Church of Christ, which I showed before, Rev. 11:1. Namely from the year 35, after the passion of Christ, what time the Temple and Church of the Jews was overthrown. In which year it came to pass by the providence of God that that saying The beast was and is not, was fulfilled before that the destruction of the Jews immediately following came to pass. That was the year from the building of the city of Rome, 109, from which year S. John both numbered the Emperors which hitherto hath been, when he wrote these things, and foretelleth two others next to come: and that with this purpose, that when this particular prediction of foretelling of things to come, should take effect the truth of all other predictions in the Church might be the more confirmed. Which sign God of old mentioned this in the Law, Deut. 18, and Jeremiah confirmeth, Jer. 28:8.
Revelation 17:10 Whose names are these: the first, Servius Sulpicius Galba, who was the seventh Emperor of the people of Rome, the second Marcus Salvius Otho, the third Aulus Vitellius, the fourth, Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the fifth, Titus Vespasianus his son of his own name.
Revelation 17:10 Flavius Domitian son of the first Vespasian. For in the latter end of his days S. John wrote these things, as witnesseth Irenaus, Lib. 5 adversus hareses.
Revelation 17:10 Nerua. The Empire being now translated from the family of Flavius. This man reigned only one year, four months, and nine days, as the history writers do tell.
Revelation 17:11 This is spoken by the figure synecdoche, as much to say as that head of the beast which was and is not, because it is cut off, and Nerua in so short time extinguished. How many heads there were, so many beasts there seemed to be in one. See the like speech in Rev. 13.3
Revelation 17:11 Nerua Traianus, who himself in divers respects is called here the seventh and the eighth.
Revelation 17:11 Though in number and order of succession he be the eighth, yet he is reckoned together with one of these heads, because Nerua and he were one head. For this man obtained authority together with Nerua, and was Consul with him, when Nerua left his life.
Revelation 17:11 Namely, to molest with persecutions the Churches of Christ, as the histories do accord, and I have briefly noted, Rev. 2:10.
Revelation 17:12 The third place of this description as I said, verse 18, is a prophetical prediction of things to come which the beast should do, as in the words following S. John doth not obscurely signify, saying, which have not yet received the kingdom, etc. For there is an Antithesis or opposition between these kings, and those that went before. And first the persons are described, in this verse, then their deeds in the two verses following.
Revelation 17:12 That is, arising with their kingdoms out of the Roman beast: at such time as that political Empire began by the craft of the Popes greatly to fall.
Revelation 17:12 Namely, with the second beast whom we called before a false prophet, which beast, ascending out of the earth got unto himself all the authority and power of the first beast, and exerciseth the same before his face, as was said, Rev. 14:11, 12. For when the political Empire of the West began to bow downwards, there both arose those ten kings, and the second beast took the opportunity offered to usurp unto himself all the power of the former beast. These kings long ago, many have numbered and described to be ten and a great part of the events plainly testifieth the same in this our age.
Revelation 17:13 That is, by consent and agreement, that they may conspire with the beast, and depend upon his beck. Their story is divided into three parts, counsels, acts, and events. The counselors some of them consist in communicating of judgments and affections: and some in communicating of power, which they are said to have given unto this beast in this verse.
Revelation 17:14 With Christ and his Church, as the reason following doth declare, and here are mentioned the facts and the events which followed for Christ’s sake, and for the grace of God the Father towards those that are called, elected, and are his faithful ones in Christ.
Revelation 17:15 This is the other member of the narration as I said verse 7, belonging unto the harlot, showed in the vision, verse 3. In this history of the harlot, these 3 things are distinctly propounded, what is her magnificence in this verse, what is her fall, and by whom it shall happen unto her, in the two verses following: and lastly, who that harlot is, in the last verse. This place which by order of nature should have been the first, is therefore made the last, because it was more fit to be joined with the next Chap.
Revelation 17:15 That is, as unconstant and variable as the waters. Upon this foundation sitteth this harlot as Queen, a vain person upon that which is vain.
Revelation 17:16 The ten Kings as verse 12. The accomplishment of this fact and event, is daily increased in this our age by the singular providence and most mighty government of God. Wherefore the facts are propounded in this verse, and the cause of them in the verses following.
Revelation 17:17 A reason rendered from the chief efficient cause, which is the providence of God, by which alone S. John by inversion of order affirmeth to have come to pass, both that the Kings should execute upon the harlot, that which pleased God, and which he declared in the verse next beforegoing: and also that by one consent and counsel, they should give their kingdom unto the beast, etc., verses 13, 14. For as these being blinded have before depended upon the beck of the beast that lifteth up the harlot, so it is said that afterward it shall come to pass, that they shall turn back, and shall fall away from her when their hearts shall be turned into better state by the grace and mercy of God.
Revelation 17:18 That is, Rome that great City, or only City (as Justinian calleth it) the King and head whereof was then the Emperor, but now the Pope, since that the condition of the beast was changed.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2017%3A9-18&version=GNV
What does the Bible say about white magic?
White magic is described as “good” magic, as opposed to black magic, which draws upon the powers of evil beings. Opinions vary as to the differences between black and white magic, ranging from the idea that they are two names for exactly the same thing, to the belief that they are completely different, especially in goals and intent. The Bible does not differentiate between “good” and “bad” magic. Magic is magic as far as the Bible is concerned. Scripture doesn’t distinguish whether the magic is supposed to be used for good or for bad; it’s all forbidden because it appeals to a source of power other than God.
Those who practice white magic, also often called Wicca, worship the creation rather than the Creator, and, while they may not call on the devil or evil spirits, they often appeal to “mother earth,” angels, and/or the elements. The central Wiccan theme is, “if it does no harm, do your own will.” Many who dabble in white magic call themselves Wiccans, whether they actually are or not. Although Wicca is fairly open-ended and there are various “denominations” and theological positions within the belief, there are certain beliefs, practices, and traditions that connect adherents of white magic to Wicca.
Whether the intent is to venerate “mother earth,” the elements, or the angels, and even if one intends to do only good, the reality is that, ultimately, there is no distinction between white and black magic because they both worship something other than God. It’s frightening to think that the adherents of white magic are unknowingly praying to and beseeching the same god that adherents of black magic are—Satan.
Throughout Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments, all forms of witchcraft are in violation of God’s law and are condemned. (Deuteronomy 18:10–16; Leviticus 19:26, 31; 20:27; Acts 13:8–10). Pharaoh’s magicians used their “secret arts” to try to duplicate the miracles done by Moses and Aaron (Exodus 7:11; 8:7)—secret arts are the ceremonies or rituals sorcerers use to accomplish their magic, involving incantations, spells, magic words, charms, amulets, etc. The apostle Paul condemned Elymas the sorcerer, proclaiming him a “child of the devil” who was full of “all kinds of deceit and trickery” and was “perverting the right ways of the Lord” (Acts 13:10). The apostle Peter likewise condemned Simon the magician in Acts 8:20–23. Nowhere in the Bible is a practicing sorcerer or magician portrayed in a positive light. A possible exception are the magi who brought gifts to Jesus; however, in the East the title magi was frequently given to philosophers or learned men who studied the secrets of nature, astronomy, and medicine. Jesus’ visitors were “wise men,” but not necessarily sorcerers. The Bible shows them worshiping the Lord (Matthew 2:11), not casting spells.
Scripture says that God hates all magic, whether it is white magic or some other kind. Why? Because it doesn’t come from God. Satan deceives people by making them think white magic is beneficial. Satan pretends to be an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), but his desire is to ensnare the souls of as many as he can. The Bible warns against him and his evil tricks. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). Real spiritual power only comes from God, from a right relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Spirit who lives in the hearts of believers.
https://www.gotquestions.org/white-magic.html
Luke 11
1599 Geneva Bible
11 1 He teacheth his Apostles to pray. 14 The dumb devil driven out. 27 A woman of the company lifted up her voice. 29 The Jews require signs. 37 He being feasted of the Pharisee, reproveth the outward show of holiness.
1 And so it was, that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, [a]Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come: Let thy will be done, even in earth, as it is in heaven:
3 Our daily bread give us [b]for the day:
4 And forgive us our sins: for even we forgive every man that is indebted to us: And lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil.
5 ¶ [c]Moreover he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves?
6 For a friend of mine is come out of the way to me, and I have nothing to set before him:
7 And he within should answer, and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed: I cannot rise and give them to thee.
8 I say unto you, Though he would not arise and give him, because he is his friend, yet doubtless because of his [d]importunity, he would rise and give him as many as he needed.
9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For everyone that asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
12 Or if he ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
13 If ye then which are evil, can give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the holy Ghost to them that desire him?
14 ¶ Then he cast out a devil which was dumb: and when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered.
15 [e]But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.
16 And others tempted him, seeking of him a sign from heaven.
17 [f]But he knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself, shall be desolate, and an house divided against an house, falleth.
18 So if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand, because ye say that I cast out devils [g]through Beelzebub?
19 If I through Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges.
20 But if I by the [h]finger of God cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God is come unto you.
21 When a strong man armed keepeth his [i]palace, the things that he possesseth, are in peace.
22 But when a stronger than he cometh upon him, and overcometh him: he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.
23 [j]He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.
24 [k]When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest: and when he findeth none, he saith, I will return unto mine house whence I came out.
25 And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.
26 Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits worse than himself: and they enter in, and dwell there: so the last state of that man is worse than the first.
27 ¶ [l]And it came to pass as he said these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
28 But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
29 ¶ [m]And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is a wicked generation: they seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given them, but the sign of Jonah the Prophet.
30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites: so shall also the son of man be to this generation.
31 The Queen of the South shall rise in judgment, with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
32 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah: and behold, a greater than Jonah is here.
33 ¶ [n]No man when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a privy place, neither under a bushel: but on a candlestick, that they which come in, may see the light.
34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, then is thy whole body light: but if thine eye be evil, then thy body is dark.
35 Take heed therefore, that the light which is in thee, be not darkness.
36 If therefore thy whole body shall be light, having no part dark, then shall all be light, even as when a candle doth light thee with the brightness.
37 ¶ [o]And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down at the table.
38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner.
39 And the Lord said to him, Indeed ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup, and of the platter: but the inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
40 Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without, make that which is within also?
41 Therefore, give alms [p]of those things which you have, and behold, all things shall be clean unto you.
42 [q]But woe be to you, Pharisees: for ye [r]tithe the mint and the rue, and [s]all manner herbs, and pass over [t]judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to have left the other undone.
43 [u]Woe be to you, Pharisees: for ye love the uppermost seats in the Synagogues, and greetings in the markets.
44 [v]Woe be to you, Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites: for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them, perceive not.
45 ¶ [w]Then answered one of the Lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou puttest us to rebuke also.
46 And he said, Woe be to you also, ye Lawyers: for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 [x]Woe be to you: for ye build the sepulchers of the Prophets, and your fathers killed them.
48 Truly [y]ye bear witness, and allow the deeds of your fathers: for they killed them, and ye build their sepulchers.
49 Therefore said the wisdom of God, I will send them Prophets and Apostles, and of them they shall slay, and [z]persecute away,
50 That the blood of all the Prophets, [aa]shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation,
51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zechariah, which was slain between the altar and the Temple: verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation.
52 [ab]Woe be to you, Lawyers: for ye have [ac]taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that came in, ye forbade.
53 [ad]And as he said these things unto them, the Scribes and Pharisees began to urge him sore, and to [ae]provoke him to speak of many things,
54 Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something of his mouth, whereby they might accuse him.
Footnotes
Luke 11:2 A form of true prayer.
Luke 11:3 That is, as much as is needful for us this day, whereby we are not debarred to have an honest care for the maintenance of our lives; but that carping care, which killeth a number of men, is cut off and restrained.
Luke 11:5 We must pray with faith.
Luke 11:8 Word for word, impudency: but that impudency which is spoken of here, is not to be found fault withall, but is very commendable before God, for he liketh well of such importunity.
Luke 11:15 An example of horrible blindness, and such as cannot be healed, when as upon an evil conscience, and pretended malice, the power of God is blasphemed.
Luke 11:17 The true way to know the true Christ, from the false, is this, that the true Christ hath no accord or agreement with Satan: And it remaineth that after we know him, we acknowledge him.
Luke 11:18 By the name and power of Beelzebub.
Luke 11:20 That is, by the power of God: so it is said, Exod. 8:19.
Luke 11:21 The word signifieth properly an open and void room before an house, and so by translation is taken for noblemen’s houses.
Luke 11:23 Against indifferent men, and such as love to have a mean, which seek means to reconcile Christ and Satan together.
Luke 11:24 He that doth not continue, is in worse case, than he that never began.
Luke 11:27 Christ seeketh not praise in himself, but in our salvation.
Luke 11:29 They that are fond desireres of miracles, instead of miracles shall receive punishment.
Luke 11:33 Our minds are therefore lightened with the knowledge of God, that we should give light unto others, and therefore our chiefest labor ought to be to pray for that light.
Luke 11:37 The service of God consisteth not in outward cleanliness, and devised rites or ceremonies, but in the spiritual righteousness of the heart, and charity.
Luke 11:41 That is, according to your abilities as who would say, instead of your extortions, which hindered you, that you could not eat cleanly, use charity, and accordingly as your ability shall serve you, be good to the poor, and so shall that, that is within the platter, be sanctified though the platter be unwashed.
Luke 11:42 It is the propense of hypocrites, to stand stoutly for little trifles, and let pass greater matters.
Luke 11:42 You decide by God’s Law that the tenth part is due to be paid.
Luke 11:42 Of all kind of herbs some, as Augustine expoundeth it in his Enchiridion to Laurence, chap. 99, where he showeth in like sort how that place of Paul, 1 Tim. 2:4, God will have all men to be saved, is to be expoundeth after the same manner.
Luke 11:42 That is to say, that that is right and reason to do: for this word, Judgment, containeth the commandments of the second table, and the other words, The love of God, contain the first.
Luke 11:43 Hypocrisy and ambition are commonly joined together.
Luke 11:44 Hypocrites deceive men with an outward show.
Luke 11:45 Hypocrites are very severe against other men, but think all things lawful to themselves.
Luke 11:47 Hypocrites honor those saints when they are dead, whom they most cruelly persecute, when they were alive.
Luke 11:48 When you persecute God’s servants, like mad men, even as your fathers did, though you color it with a pretence of godliness, yet notwithstanding, in that you beautify the sepulchers of the Prophets, what do you else, but glory in your fathers’ cruelty, and set up monuments (as it were) in glory and triumph of it?
Luke 11:49 They shall so vex them and trouble them, that at length they shall banish them.
Luke 11:50 That you may be called to an account for it, yea, and be punished, for the shedding of that blood of the Prophet.
Luke 11:52 They have of long time chiefly hindered the people, from entering into the knowledge of God, which ought to be the doorkeepers of the Church.
Luke 11:52 You have hidden and taken away, so that it cannot be found anywhere.
Luke 11:53 The more the world is reprehended, the worse it is, and yet must we not betray the truth.
Luke 11:53 They proposed many questions to him, to draw something out of his mouth, which they might traitorously carp at.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2011&version=GNV
Comments
Post a Comment