A 66-year-old man is among those who lost their lives in the Eaton Fire, with his sister telling ABC News he died in a heroic attempt to defend his home in Altadena.

ABC News

19 hours ago

Victor Shaw's body was found in front of the home, a garden hose still in his hand.

"I can't imagine what he might have been thinking, how he might have been so frightened," Shari Shaw said. "And I couldn't be here, I couldn't be here to save him. I couldn't be here, that's what hurts the most."

Read more: https://abcnews.link/1zS7nmJ

https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxfZFbTvxiE5bt9hTkYlouKtZgU5AhFqQQ

Prank Gift PENIS Garden Water Hose Spray Nozzle Dick

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125458808020

The right moment

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Roger Lau (via Democrats.org) Unsubscribe

Wed, Jan 8, 6:46 PM (2 days ago)

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Hi William,

If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to make your first contribution to the DNC this year, I’m here to tell you this is it.

If that’s all you need to hear, you can use this link to help us build the strongest possible Democratic Party:

https://democrats.org/go/Donate

Otherwise, I hope you’ll give me a chance to explain why we’re counting on your support today.

As Deputy Executive Director of the Party, I work with our team to help guide our long-term strategy. As we look ahead to Trump’s inauguration and beyond, it’s clear there’s a lot of work ahead of us: Preventing the worst impulses of Trump and his allies from becoming our reality; continuing the historic investments we’ve made in state parties; ensuring Democrats in states like Virginia and New Jersey have the resources they’ll need to win big races this year. The list goes on…

I know you might be feeling burnt out and disappointed that we’re facing another Trump presidency. Trust me: You’re certainly not alone.

But there are millions of us who care deeply about this country and about our friends and neighbors. We care enough to pour our time, energy, and hard-earned money into building the future we want to see.

And that’s exactly what we need to do in this moment.

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None of us can do this work alone. It’s going to take all of us working together to move our country forward. With your help, that’s exactly what we’ll do.

Thank you for everything,

Roger

Roger Lau

Deputy Executive Director

Democratic National Committee

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/em-dnc-january-2025?refcode=em_20250108_2502_fr&refcode2=2525_23872186_vg8RKG&akid=2525.23872186.vg8RKG

Operation Mockingbird is an alleged large-scale program of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that began in the early years of the Cold War and attempted to manipulate domestic American news media organizations for propaganda purposes. According to author Deborah Davis, Operation Mockingbird recruited leading American journalists into a propaganda network and influenced the operations of front groups. CIA support of front groups was exposed when an April 1967 Ramparts article reported that the National Student Association received funding from the CIA.[1] In 1975, Church Committee Congressional investigations revealed Agency connections with journalists and civic groups.

In 1973, a document referred to as the "Family Jewels"[2] was published by the CIA containing a reference to "Project Mockingbird", which was the name of an operation in 1963 which wiretapped two journalists who had published articles based on classified material.[3] The document does not contain references to "Operation Mockingbird".[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird

I’ve got a burning question for you after my wrongful sentencing

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Donald J. Trump Unsubscribe

9:42 AM (8 hours ago)

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TRUMP

William, can you respond to question #1 now that I’ve been wrongly sentenced?

It’s President Trump, and I’d love to hear from you after facing the corrupt court. >>

RESPOND TO TRUMP

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The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created under the National Security Act of 1947, which President Truman signed on July 26, 1947. The CIA officially came into existence on September 18th that same year, which is when we celebrate our birthday.

With the passage of the 1947 Act, Truman achieved his goals of modernizing and unifying America’s armed services, and, by creating a centralized intelligence agency, reformed our intelligence capabilities. To protect American’s civil liberties, he made sure to clearly divide intelligence roles between domestic and foreign: FBI would handle anything domestic, while CIA was limited to foreign intelligence only. Furthermore, the Act specified that CIA would have no police, subpoena, or law enforcement powers.

President Truman appointed Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter as the first CIA director, known as the Director of Central Intelligence. He had been the Director of one of our immediate “ancestors,” called the Central Intelligence Group. The CIG was a bureaucratic anomaly with no independent budget, no statutory mandate, and staffers assigned from other departments of the government. America needed a peacetime, centralized intelligence agency with its own budget and mandate. That’s why Truman replaced the CIG and created the CIA.

The 1947 Act loosely defined CIA’s mission into four broad tasks:

The 1947 Act was relatively unchanged until 2004. President Bush, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, made major updates to the 1947 act, including the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

If you’re interested, you can find out more about what is called “the National Security Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of December 2004” on the DNI’s website.

The importance of the 1947 National Security Act cannot be overstated. It created our Nation’s first peacetime intelligence agency, reflected America’s acceptance of its position as a world leader, and it remained a cornerstone of our national security policy for 75 years… and counting.

~ Molly

https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/ask-molly-the-national-security-act-of-1947/

Molly

fem. proper name, a diminutive of Moll, which is a familiar form of Mary.

molly (n.1)

a common 18c. colloquial term for "homosexual man" or "man who is deemed effeminate, a sissy," by 1707, perhaps 1690s. The fem. proper name Molly or Moll served as a type-name of a low-class girl or prostitute in old songs and ballads (perhaps in part for the sake of the easy rhymes).

But the colloquial word also resembles Latin mollis "soft," which also had been used classically in a specific pejorative sense in reference to men, "soft, effeminate, unmanly, weak," in Cicero, Livy, etc. A 1629 publication from the Catholic-Protestant theological disputes, "Truth's triumph ouer Trent," written in English with swerves into Latin, at one point describes the denizens of Hell as fideles fornicarios, adulteros, molles, and so forth, and molles is translated parenthetically in the text as "effeminate." Molly House as a term for a brothel frequented by gay men is attested in a court case from 1726.

also from 18c.

molly (n.2)

seabird, 1857, short for mollymawk, mallemuck, from Dutch mallemok, from mal "foolish" + mok "gull."

also from 1857

https://www.etymonline.com/word/molly

A cuckold is the husband of an adulterous wife (or partner for unmarried companions); the wife of an adulterous husband is a cuckquean. In biology, a cuckold is a male who unwittingly invests parental effort in juveniles who are not genetically his offspring.[1] A husband who is aware of and tolerates his wife's infidelity is sometimes called a wittol or wittold.[2] The slang term bull refers to the dominant man who has relations with the cuckold's partner.

History of the term

A reed warbler raising the chick of a common cuckoo; the term "cuckold" is derived from the cuckoo's tendency to lay eggs in the nests of other birds.

The word cuckold derives from the cuckoo bird, alluding to its brood parasitism, or tendency to lay its eggs in the nests of other birds.[3][4] The association is common in medieval folklore, literature, and iconography.

English usage first appears about 1250 in the medieval debate poem The Owl and the Nightingale. It was characterized as an overtly blunt term in John Lydgate's The Fall of Princes, c. 1440.[5] William Shakespeare's writing often referred to cuckolds, with several of his characters suspecting they had become one.[4]

The word often implies that the husband is deceived; that he is unaware of his wife's unfaithfulness and may not know until the arrival or growth of a child plainly not his (as with cuckoo birds).[4]

The female equivalent cuckquean first appears in English literature in 1562,[6][7] adding a female suffix to the cuck.

A related word, first appearing in 1520, is wittol, which substitutes wit (in the sense of knowing) for the first part of the word, referring to a man aware of and reconciled to his wife's infidelity.[8]

Cuck

Further information: Cuckservative

An abbreviation of cuckold, the term cuck has been used by the alt-right to attack the masculinity of an opponent. It was originally aimed at other conservatives.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckold

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Information CSG-COS & COSA <info@cosaction.com>

1:49 PM (49 minutes ago)

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Please remove updates@cosaction.com from your Carson Tahoe email list. We did not ask to be included and most of the emails and the group replies do not pertain to us.

Yours in Liberty,

Convention of States Action Team

conventionofstates.com

Donate

If you are not already involved and you would like to become one of our millions of supporters, please join our volunteer army by signing up at ConventionOfStates.com/volunteer! Besides contacting legislators, we have a number of volunteer opportunities listed on the volunteer page. Also, please check out our Be A Leader webpage if you would be interested in applying for one of our leadership positions.

Billy Dunn <0lizzysec1@gmail.com>

2:28 PM (10 minutes ago)

to Information

you sent out unsolicited emails to people but then have the nerve to snivel because Jesuit nose is bent out of shape over the truth, then take your email address off your website at COSAction because that is an invite to send email. obviously you are not what you advertise yourselves to be

Gmail.com

America should have no respect for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after reading this:

As the likelihood of an eruption increased, state officials ordered an evacuation of the area with the exception of a few scientists and security officials. On May 17 1980, local law enforcement attempted one final time to persuade Truman to leave his home, to no avail. At 8:32 the following morning, Mount St. Helens erupted, collapsing the entire northern flank of the mountain.[27] Truman and his 16 cats were alone at his lodge,[11] and all are presumed to have died in the eruption on May 18.[23] All likely died of heat shock in less than a second, too quickly to register pain.[28]

The largest landslide in recorded history and a pyroclastic flow traveling atop the landslide engulfed the Spirit Lake area almost simultaneously, destroying the lake and burying the site of Truman's lodge under 150 ft (46 m) of volcanic landslide debris.[27] Authorities never searched for Truman's remains.[11] Truman considered his cats family and mentioned them in almost all public statements.[11][27]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_R._Truman

The History of CIA’s Seal

July 7, 2020

If you’ve spent time on CIA’s website or browsed through our social media accounts, you’re no doubt familiar with our seal. Made famous by countless Hollywood films and TV shows, the CIA seal featured on the floor at our Headquarters in Langley, Virginia has become almost as famous as the Agency itself.

The seal features our nation’s bird—the eagle–symbolizing strength and alertness, a shield to represent defense and the role of intelligence in defending the nation, and a 16-point compass rose which symbolizes the collection of intelligence from across the globe to a central location (CIA). The seal is so identifiable with CIA that it’s hard to imagine anything else in its place. However, it might surprise you to know that the path to this seal, as we know it today, was far from certain.

It Started with a Contest

CIA was officially created with the signing of the National Security Act of 1947. While that Act green-lighted CIA to carry out its important mission, what it didn’t do was account for the creation of an official seal. This may seem an insignificant detail, but executives of the young CIA expressed concern that other US government organizations might question the legitimacy of documents missing an official seal. Hence, two years later the CIA Act of 1949 was signed, which – among other things – provided for the creation of an official seal.

On 1 July, 1949, CIA issued a notice to all employees inviting submissions of a “suitable design” for what would become our official seal. Originality and appropriateness, rather than artistic talent, were the criteria for judging. Employees would have just two weeks to submit their designs.

Call in the Pros

After reviewing around a dozen submissions from Agency employees, it was determined that none were what the leaders were looking for to represent CIA. So they decided to turn to professionals. Meetings to discuss the seal design with the US Army Heraldic Branch (today’s US Army Institute of Heraldry) began in late July 1949.

By December 1949 the Heraldic Branch completed the design process and presented CIA with the design and several color palette options from which to choose.

Then Director of Central Intelligence Roscoe Hillenkoetter made the call to select the seal we know today and on 17 February 1950, President Truman gave the final approval. He signed several copies, including the one pictured below which is displayed at CIA Headquarters.

The Seal that Never Was

We all love the seal in its current form, but isn’t it always fun to consider what might have been? Should CIA’s design history have chartered a different course, what seal might we be talking about today? What seal could have been forever enshrined on the lobby of CIA’s headquarters, in place of the infamous eagle’s bust, shield, and compass rose?

Well, the employee contest yielded some interesting submissions. Here are a few of our favorites.

Some elements may seem familiar, and that is not by accident. Records show us that the Heraldic Branch reviewed employee-designs and incorporated some of the more appropriate pieces into CIA’s final seal. The compass rose, eagle, shield, and some of the font-styling stand out in particular. And while we’re not sure there was any real ‘winner’ of the employee design contest, our votes most certainly would have gone to the owl-and-lantern design. Why? Because it’s a hoot, that’s why.

https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/the-history-of-cias-seal/

Why the CIA Is Called the ‘Catholic Intelligence Agency’

Deacon Greg Kandra - published on 05/05/16

Catholics have been thriving at the CIA since its earliest days. Who knew?

From The Catholic Herald:

The CIA is the best known of the 17 agencies that comprise the American intelligence community. It has earned itself nicknames like “Catholic Intelligence Agency” and “Catholics In Action”. It’s worth exploring why.

No official statistics exist on Catholics in the CIA or any other American intelligence agency. But one interesting clue is the relatively high number of Catholics who have served as director of the agency.

The United States is a country in which – with the recent exception of the Supreme Court – Catholics have never dominated the highest offices. Only one out of 44 US Presidents has been Catholic. The first and only Catholic Vice President is the current one, Joe Biden. Before John Kerry, the last Catholic Secretary of State was Alexander Haig, who left the post in 1982. Catholics are a rarity in other top positions such as Secretary of Defence.

By contrast, three out of the last five CIA directors have been Catholic: Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, and the current director, John Brennan. Looking back, a number of Catholics led the agency in critical periods during the Cold War. (There were no Catholic directors in the 1990s.)

Some of the most influential directors in CIA history have been Catholic – men such as Walter Bedell Smith, John McCone, William Colby and William Casey. They were not just casual Catholics. They were devout Mass-goers – in many cases, members of groups like the Knights of Malta. The conspiracy theorists usually start there, with nefarious plots about the Vatican steering world affairs. Of course, they never ask why an all-powerful Vatican can’t engineer more Catholic presidents.

https://aleteia.org/blogs/aleteia-blog/why-the-cia-is-called-the-catholic-intelligence-agency

Screening of “The Divine Plan: John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, and the Dramatic End of the Cold War.”

By U.S. Mission Holy See

5 MINUTE READ

June 22, 2019

The White House

Washington D.C

June 21, 2019

Good evening. I’d like to thank Joseph Grogan for the opportunity to be with you.

I’d also like to thank and congratulate Robert Orlando for creating this wonderful documentary film!

As a Polish American, a lifelong Catholic, a filmmaker, and the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, I can attest to the extraordinary significance of Saint John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Poland in 1979, and its impact on President Ronald Reagan.

As you just witnessed, Saint John Paul II’s nine-day pilgrimage to his homeland changed the course of the 20th Century, and launched one of the most consequential diplomatic partnerships in history.

President Reagan first met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1982. Upon returning to the United States, the President instructed the U.S. State Department to work closely with the Holy See and ordered the opening of a full-fledged embassy.

In 1984, the Polish Pope and the American President established formal diplomatic relations between the United States and the Holy See. In doing so, they formalized a bond that had existed between the United States and the Vatican, dating back to the founding of our Republic.

In our nation’s earliest years, consular representatives were sent to what was then the Papal States. Even after the Papal States dissolved in 1870, the United States and the Holy See continued to engage at a distance.

Throughout much of the 20th Century, U.S. presidents recognized the importance of the Holy See in advancing peace and justice around the world. During World War II, President Roosevelt’s envoy to the Vatican worked with the Church to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Europe.

But as the Second World War gave way to the Cold War, the destructive forces of the Soviet Union threatened to conquer the free world.

As we just watched in this film, the Polish Pope and the American President were under no delusions about the task ahead. They realized that an unofficial relationship between the United States and the Holy See was no longer adequate to meet the dangers posed by the Soviet Union.

That was forever changed in 1984. This new diplomatic partnership, as President Reagan said, “Would exist to the benefit of peace-loving people, everywhere.” And for 35 years it has done just that.

Of course, the necessity of our work with the Holy See did not end with the fall of the Berlin Wall. President Reagan not only forged a strong personal relationship with Saint John Paul II, but also an important diplomatic bond between the United States and the Holy See – one that endures to this day.

Today, our governments face different challenges —equally great and perilous.

The United States views its partnership with the Holy See as critical to promoting peace, freedom, and human dignity. Our work touches a wide range of global issues, from promoting religious freedom, to combatting human trafficking, to preventing conflict and violence.

Like the United States, the Holy See is engaged on every continent, with access and credibility in the world’s most troubled areas – including places where many governments are unable to work.

The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See relies on the enormous reach of the Vatican’s network to serve as a global engagement post, to defend and promote our shared priorities around the world.

President Ronald Reagan and Saint John Paul II understood the potential and significance of this relationship. Their partnership paved the way; their example is ever-present. The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See will continue to honor and uphold this great legacy.

Thank you.

https://va.usembassy.gov/remarks-by-ambassador-gingrich-at-a-screening-of-the-divine-plan-john-paul-ii-ronald-reagan-and-the-dramatic-end-of-the-cold-war/

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 13:16-18

New International Version

"16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man.[a] That number is 666.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013%3A16-18&version=NIV

ROME Survey Page

https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/lp/landing-page-rome.html

Havana syndrome ’ and the mystery of the microwaves by Gordon Carera

"Doctors, scientists, intelligence agents and government officials have all been trying to find out what causes "Havana syndrome" - a mysterious illness that has struck American diplomats and spies. Some call it an act of war, others wonder if it is some new and secret form of surveillance - and some people believe it could even be all in the mind. So who or what is responsible? It often started with a sound, one that people struggled to describe. "Buzzing", "grinding metal", "piercing squeals", was the best they could manage. One woman described a low hum and intense pressure in her skull; another felt a pulse of pain. Those who did not hear a sound, felt heat or pressure. But for those who heard the sound, covering their ears made no difference. Some of the people who experienced the syndrome were left with dizziness and fatigue for months. Havana syndrome first emerged in Cuba in 2016. The first cases were CIA officers, which meant they were kept secret. But, eventually, word got out and anxiety spread. Twenty-six personnel and family members would report a wide variety of symptoms. There were whispers that some colleagues thought sufferers were crazy and it was "all in the mind". Five years on, reports now number in the hundreds and, the BBC has been told, span every continent, leaving a real impact on the US's ability to operate overseas. Uncovering the truth has now become a top US national security priority - one that an official has described as the most difficult intelligence challenge they have ever faced. Hard evidence has been elusive, making the syndrome a battleground for competing theories. Some see it as a psychological illness, others a secret weapon. But a growing trail of evidence has focused on microwaves as the most likely culprit. In 2015, diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba were restored after decades of hostility. But within two years, Havana syndrome almost shut the embassy down, as staff were withdrawn because of concerns for their welfare. Initially, there was speculation that the Cuban government - or a hard-line faction opposed to improving relations - might be responsible, having deployed some kind of sonic weapon. Cuba's security services, after all, had been nervous about an influx of US personnel and kept a tight grip on the capital. That theory would fade as cases spread around the world. But recently, another possibility has come into the frame - one whose roots lay in the darker recesses of the Cold War, and a place where science, medicine, espionage and geopolitics collide. When James Lin, a professor at the University of Illinois, read the first reports about the mysterious sounds in Havana, he immediately suspected that microwaves were responsible. His belief was based not just on theoretical research, but first-hand experience. Decades earlier, he had heard the sounds himself. Since its emergence around World War Two, there had been reports of people being able to hear something when a nearby radar was switched on and began sending microwaves into the sky. This was even though there was no external noise. In 1961, a paper by Dr Allen Frey argued the sounds were caused by microwaves interacting with the nervous system, leading to the term the "Frey Effect". But the exact causes - and implications - remained unclear. In the 1970s, Prof Lin set to work conducting his experiments at the University of Washington. He sat on a wooden chair in a small room lined with absorbent materials, an antenna aimed at the back of his head. In his hand he held a light switch. Outside, a colleague sent pulses of microwaves through the antenna at random intervals. If Prof Lin heard a sound, he pressed the switch. A single pulse sounded like a zip or a clicking finger. A series of pulses like a bird chirping. They were produced in his head rather than as sound waves coming from outside. Prof Lin believed the energy was absorbed by the soft brain tissue and converted to a pressure wave moving inside the head, which was interpreted by the brain as sound. This occurred when high-power microwaves were delivered as pulses rather than in the low-power continuous form you get from a modern microwave oven or other devices. Prof Lin recalls that he was careful not to dial it up too high. "I did not want to have my brain damaged," he told the BBC. In 1978, he found he was not alone in his interest, and received an unusual invitation to discuss his latest paper from a group of scientists who had been carrying out their own experiments. During the Cold War, science was the focus of intense super-power rivalry. Even areas like mind control were explored, amid fears of the other side getting an edge - and this included microwaves. Prof Lin was shown the Soviet approach at a centre of scientific research in the town of Pushchino, near Moscow. "They had a very elaborate, very well-equipped laboratory," Prof Lin recalls. But their experiment was cruder than his. The subject would sit in a drum of salty seawater with their head sticking out. Then microwaves would be fired at their brain. The scientists thought the microwaves interacted with the nervous system and wanted to question Prof Lin on his alternative view. Curiosity cut both ways, and US spies kept close track on Soviet research. A 1976 report by the US Defense Intelligence Agency, unearthed by the BBC, says it could find no proof of Communist-bloc microwave weapons, but says it had learnt of experiments where microwaves were pulsed at the throat of frogs until their hearts stopped. The report also reveals that the US was concerned Soviet microwaves could be used to impair brain function or induce sounds for psychological effect. "Their internal sound perception research has great potential for development into a system for disorienting or disrupting the behaviour patterns of military or diplomatic personnel." American interest was more than just defensive. James Lin would occasionally glimpse references to secret US work on weapons in the same field. And while Prof Lin was in Pushchino, another group of Americans not far away were worried that they were being zapped by microwaves - and that their own government had covered it up. For nearly a quarter of a century, the 10-storey US embassy in Moscow was bathed by a wide, invisible beam of low-level microwaves. It became known as "the Moscow signal". But for many years, most of those working inside knew nothing. The beam came from an antenna on the balcony of a nearby Soviet apartment and hit the upper floors of the embassy where the ambassador's office and more sensitive work was carried out. It had been first spotted in the 1950s and was later monitored from a room on the 10th floor. But its existence was a secret tightly held from all but a few working inside. "We were trying to figure out just what might be its purpose," explains Jack Matlock, number two at the embassy in the mid-70s. But a new ambassador, Walter Stoessel, arrived in 1974 and threatened to resign unless everyone was told. "That caused something like panic," recalls Mr Matlock. Embassy staff whose children were in a basement nursery were especially worried. But the State Department played down any risk. Then Ambassador Stoessel, himself, fell ill - with bleeding of the eyes as one of his symptoms. In a now declassified 1975 phone call to the Soviet ambassador to Washington, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger linked Stoessel's illness to microwaves, admitting "we are trying to keep the thing quiet". Stoessel died of leukaemia at the age of 66. "He decided to play the good soldier", and not make a fuss, his daughter told the BBC. From 1976 screens were installed to protect people. But many diplomats were angry, believing the State Department had first kept quiet, and then resisted acknowledging any possible health impact. This was a claim echoed decades later with Havana syndrome. What was the Moscow signal for? "I'm pretty sure that the Soviets had intentions other than damaging us," says Matlock. They were ahead of the US in surveillance technology and one theory was that they bounced microwaves off windows to pick up conversations, another that they were activating their own listening devices hidden inside the building or capturing information through microwaves hitting US electronic devices (known as "peek and poke"). The Soviets at one point told Matlock that the purpose was actually to jam American equipment on the embassy roof used to intercept Soviet communications in Moscow. This is the world of surveillance and counter-surveillance, one so secret that even within embassies and governments only a few people know the full picture. One theory is that Havana involved a much more targeted method to carry out some kind of surveillance with higher-power, directed microwaves. One former UK intelligence official told the BBC that microwaves could be used to "illuminate" electronic devices to extract signals or identify and track them. Others speculate that a device (even perhaps an American one) might have been poorly engineered or malfunctioned and caused a physical reaction in some people. However, US officials tell the BBC no device has been identified or recovered. After a lull, cases began to spread beyond Cuba. In December 2017, Marc Polymeropolous woke suddenly in a Moscow hotel room. A senior CIA officer, he was in town to meet Russian counterparts. "My ears were ringing, my head was spinning. I felt like I was going to vomit. I couldn't stand up," he told the BBC. "It was terrifying." It was a year after the first Havana cases, but the CIA medical office told him his symptoms didn't match the Cuban cases. A long battle for medical treatment began. The severe headaches never went away and in the summer of 2019 he was forced to retire. Mr Polymreopolous originally thought he had been hit by some kind of technical surveillance tool that had been "turned up too much". But when more cases emerged at the CIA which were all, he says, linked to people working on Russia, he came to believe he had been targeted with a weapon. But then came China, including at the consulate in Guangzhou in early 2018. Some of those affected in China contacted Beatrice Golomb, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, who has long researched the health effects of microwaves, as well as other unexplained illnesses. She told the BBC that she wrote to the State Department's medical team in January 2018 with a detailed account of why she thought microwaves were responsible. "This makes for interesting reading," was the non-committal response. Prof Golomb says high levels of radiation were recorded by family members of personnel in Guangzhou using commercially available equipment. "The needle went off the top of the available readings." But she says the State Department told its own employees that the measurements they had taken off their own back were classified. A host of problems plagued early investigations. There was a failure to collect consistent data. The State Department and CIA failed to communicate with each other, and the scepticism of their internal medical teams caused tension. Only one out of the nine cases from China was initially determined by the State Department to match the criteria for the syndrome based on Havana cases. That left others who experienced symptoms angry, and feeling as if they were being accused of making it up. They began a battle for equal treatment, which is still going on today. As frustration grew, some of those affected turned to Mark Zaid, a lawyer who specialises in national security cases. He now acts for around two dozen government personnel, half from the intelligence community. "This is not Havana syndrome. It's a misnomer," argues Mr Zaid, whose clients were affected in many locations. "What's been going on has been known by the United States government probably, based on evidence that I have seen, since the late 1960s." Since 2013, Mr Zaid has represented one employee of the US National Security Agency who believed they were damaged in 1996 in a location which remains classified. Mr Zaid questions why the US government has been so unwilling to acknowledge a longer history. One possibility, he says, is because it might open a Pandora's Box of incidents that have been ignored over the years. Another is because the US, too, has developed and perhaps even deployed microwaves itself and wants to keep it secret. The country's interest in weaponising microwaves extended beyond the end of the Cold War. Reports say from the 1990s, the US Air Force had a project codenamed "Hello" to see if microwaves could create disturbing sounds in people's heads, one called "Goodbye" to test their use for crowd control, and one codenamed "Goodnight" to see if they could be used to kill people. Reports from a decade ago suggested these had not proved successful. But the study of the mind and what can be done to it has been receiving increased focus within the military and security world. "The brain is being seen as the 21st Century battle-scape," argues James Giordano, an adviser to the Pentagon and Professor in Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University, who was asked to look at the initial Havana cases. "Brain sciences are global. It is not just the province of what used to be known as the West." Ways to both augment and damage brain function are being worked on, he told the BBC. But it is a field with little transparency or rules. He says China and Russia have been engaged in microwave research and raises the possibility that tools developed for industrial and commercial uses - for instance to test the impact of microwaves on materials - could have been repurposed. But he also wonders if disruption and spreading fear were also the aim. This kind of technology may have been around for a while - and even have been used selectively. But that would still mean something changed in Cuba to get it noticed. Bill Evanina was a senior intelligence official when the Havana cases emerged, and stepped down as the head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center this year. He has little doubt about what happened in Havana. "Was it an offensive weapon? I believe it was," he told the BBC. He believes microwaves may have been deployed in recent military conflicts, but points to specific circumstances to explain a shift. Cuba, 90 miles off the Florida coast, has long been an ideal site to collect "signals intelligence" by intercepting communications. During the Cold War, it was home to a major Soviet listening station. When Vladimir Putin visited in 2014, reports suggested it was being re-opened. China also opened two sites in recent years, according to one source, while the Russians sent in 30 additional intelligence officers. But from 2015, the US was back in town. With its newly opened embassy and a beefed-up presence, the US was just beginning to establish its footing, collecting intelligence and pushing back against Russian and Chinese spies. "We were in a ground fight," one person recalls. Then the sounds began. "Who had the most to benefit from the closing of the embassy in Havana?" asks Mr Evanina. "If the Russian government was increasing and promulgating their intelligence collection in Cuba, it was probably not good for them to have the US in Cuba." Russia has repeatedly dismissed accusations it is involved, or has "directed microwave weapons". "Such provocative, baseless speculation and fanciful hypotheses can't really be considered a serious matter for comment," its foreign ministry has said. And there have been sceptics about the very existence of Havana syndrome. They argue that the unique situation in Cuba supports their case.

Contagious Stress

Robert W Baloh, a Professor of Neurology at UCLA, has long studied unexplained health symptoms. When he saw the Havana syndrome reports, he concluded they were a mass psychogenic condition. He compares this to the way people feel sick when they are told they have eaten tainted food even if there was nothing wrong with it - the reverse of the placebo effect. "When you see mass psychogenic illness, there's usually some stressful underlying situation," he says. "In the case of Cuba and the mass of the embassy employees - particularly the CIA agents who first were affected - they certainly were in a stressful situation." In his view, every-day symptoms like brain fog and dizziness are reframed - by sufferers, media and health professionals - as the syndrome. "The symptoms are as real as any other symptoms," he says, arguing that individuals became hyper-aware and fearful as reports spread, especially within a closed community. This, he believes, then became contagious among other US officials serving abroad.

There remain many unexplained elements. Why did Canadian diplomats report symptoms in Havana? Were they collateral damage from targeting nearby Americans? And why have no UK officials reported symptoms? "The Russians have literally tried to kill people on British soil in recent years with radioactive materials, yet why are there no reported cases?" asks Mark Zaid. "I would probably put on pause the statement that no-one in the UK has experienced any symptoms," responds Bill Evanina, who says the US is now sharing details with allies to spot cases. Some instances may be unrelated. "We had a bunch of military folk in the Middle East who claimed to have this attack - turned out they had food poisoning," says one former official. "We need to separate the wheat from the chaff," reckons Mark Zaid, who says members of the public, some with mental health issues, approach him claiming to suffer from microwave attacks. One former official reckons around half the cases reported by US officials are possibly linked to attacks by an adversary. Others say the real number could be even smaller. A December 2020 report by the US National Academies of Sciences was a pivotal moment. Experts took evidence from scientists and clinicians as well as eight victims. "It was quite dramatic," recalls Professor David Relman of Stanford, who chaired the panel. "Some of these people literally were in hiding, for fear of further actions against them by whomever. There were actually precautions we had to take to ensure their safety." The panel looked at psychological and other causes, but concluded that directed, high energy, pulsed microwaves were most likely responsible for some of the cases, similar to the view of James Lin, who gave evidence. But even though the State Department sponsored the study, it still considers the conclusion only a plausible hypothesis and officials say they have not found further evidence to support it. The Biden administration has signalled it is taking the issue seriously. CIA and State Department officials are given advice on how to respond to incidents (including 'getting off the X' - meaning physically moving from a spot if they feel they are getting hit). The State Department has set up a task force to support staff over what are now called "unexplained health incidents". Previous attempts to categorise cases as to whether they met specific criteria have been abandoned. But without a definition, it becomes harder to count. This year, a new wave of cases arrived - including Berlin and a larger group in Vienna. In August, a trip by US Vice-President Kamala Harris to Vietnam was delayed three hours because of a reported case at the embassy in Hanoi. Worried diplomats are now asking questions before taking foreign assignments with their families. "This is a major distraction for us if we think that the Russians are doing things to our intelligence officers who are travelling," says former CIA officer Polymreopolous, who finally received the medical treatment he wanted this year. "That's going to put a crimp in our operational footprint." The CIA has taken over the hunt for a cause, with a veteran of the hunt for Osama bin Laden placed in charge.

Markers In The Blood

An accusation that another state has been harming US officials is a consequential one. "That's an act of war," says Mr Polymeropolous. That makes it a high bar to reach. Policymakers will demand hard evidence, which so far, officials say, is still lacking. Five years on, some US officials say little more is known other than when Havana syndrome started. But others disagree. They say the evidence for microwaves is much stronger now, if not yet conclusive. The BBC has learnt that new evidence is arriving as data is collected and analysed more systematically for the first time. Some of the cases this year showed specific markers in the blood, indicating brain injury. These markers fall away after a few days and previously too much time had elapsed to spot them. But now that people are being tested much more quickly after reporting symptoms, they have been seen for the first time. The debate remains divisive and it is possible the answer is complex. There may be a core of real cases, while others have been folded into the syndrome. Officials raise the possibility that the technology and the intent might have changed over time, perhaps shifting to try and unsettle the US. Some even worry one state may have piggy-backed on another's activities. "We like a simple label diagnosis," argues Professor Relman. "But sometimes it is tough to achieve. And when we can't, we have to be very careful not to simply throw up our hands and walk away." The mystery of Havana syndrome could be its real power. The ambiguity and fear it spreads act as a multiplier, making more and more people wonder if they are suffering, and making it harder for spies and diplomats to operate overseas. Even if it began as a tightly defined incident, Havana syndrome may have developed a life of its own."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58396698

Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II; Italian: Giovanni Paolo II; Polish: Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛv vɔjˈtɨwa];[b] 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_John_Paul_II

As May 18 dawned, Mount St. Helens's activity did not show any change from the pattern of the preceding month. The rates of bulge movement and sulfur dioxide emission, and ground temperature readings did not reveal any changes indicating a catastrophic eruption. USGS volcanologist David A. Johnston was on duty at an observation post around 6 mi (10 km) north of the volcano: as of 6:00 am, Johnston's measurements did not indicate any unusual activity.[9]

At 8:32 am, a magnitude-5.1 earthquake centered directly below the north slope triggered that part of the volcano to slide,[31] approximately 7–20 seconds after the shock,[9] followed a few seconds later by the main volcanic blast. The landslide, the largest subaerial landslide in recorded history, traveled at 110 to 155 mph (177 to 249 km/h) and moved across Spirit Lake's west arm. Part of it hit a 1,150 ft-high (350 m) ridge about 6 mi (10 km) north.[9] Some of the slide spilled over the ridge, but most of it moved 13 mi (21 km) down the North Fork Toutle River, filling its valley up to 600 feet (180 m) deep with avalanche debris.[31] An area of about 24 sq mi (62 km2) was covered, and the total volume of the deposit was about 0.7 cu mi (2.9 km3).[9]

Scientists were able to reconstruct the motion of the landslide from a series of rapid photographs by Gary Rosenquist, who was camping 11 mi (18 km) away from the blast 46°18′49″N 122°02′12″W.[9] Rosenquist, his party, and his photographs survived because the blast was deflected by local topography 1 mi (1.6 km) short of his location.[32]

Sound of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, as heard from 140 miles away

Duration: 44 seconds.0:44

Amateur recording of a series of booms produced by the eruption, as heard from the town of Newport, Oregon (audio filtered and amplified).

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Most of St. Helens's former north side became a rubble deposit 17 mi (27 km) long, averaging 150 ft (46 m) thick; the slide was thickest at 1 mi (1.6 km) below Spirit Lake and thinnest at its western margin.[9] The landslide temporarily displaced the waters of Spirit Lake to the ridge north of the lake, in a giant wave about 600 ft (180 m) high.[33] This, in turn, created a 295 ft (90 m) avalanche of debris consisting of the returning waters and thousands of uprooted trees and stumps. Some of these remained intact with roots, but most had been sheared off at the stump seconds earlier by the blast of superheated volcanic gas and ash that had immediately followed and overtaken the initial landslide. The debris was transported along with the water as it returned to its basin, raising the surface level of Spirit Lake by about 200 ft (61 m).[9]

Four decades after the eruption, floating log mats persist on Spirit Lake and nearby St. Helens Lake, changing position with the wind. The rest of the trees, especially those that were not completely detached from their roots, were turned upright by their own weight and became waterlogged, sinking into the muddy sediments at the bottom where they are in the process of becoming petrified in the anaerobic and mineral-rich waters. This provides insight into other sites with a similar fossil record.[34]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens

Updated May 18, 2023 Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons Both the 2022 National Defense Strategy and the House Armed Services Committee’s bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force Report have identified directed energy as a technology that could have a significant impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. As the Department of Defense (DOD) continues to invest in directed-energy (DE) weapons, Congress may consider implications for defense authorizations, appropriations, and oversight. Overview DOD defines DE weapons as those using concentrated electromagnetic energy, rather than kinetic energy, to “incapacitate, damage, disable, or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, and/or personnel.” DE weapons include high-energy lasers (HEL) and high-powered microwave (HPM) weapons; other DE weapons, such as particle beam weapons, are outside the scope of this In Focus. HELs might be used by ground forces in short-range air defense (SHORAD), counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS), or counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar (C-RAM) missions. The weapons might be used to “dazzle” (i.e., temporarily disable) or damage satellites and sensors. This could in turn interfere with intelligence-gathering operations; military cmmunications; and positioning, navigation, and timing systems used for weapons targeting. In addition, HELs could theoretically provide options for boost-phase missile intercept, given their speed-of-light travel time; however, experts disagree on the affordability, technological feasibility, and utility of this application. In general, HELs might offer lower costs per shot and— assuming access to a sufficient power supply—deeper magazines compared with traditional munitions. (Although a number of different types of HELs exist, many of the United States’ current programs are solid state lasers, which are fueled by electrical power. As a result, the cost per shot is equivalent to the cost of the electrical power required to fire the shot.) This could in turn produce a favorable costexchange ratio for the defender, whose marginal costs would be significantly lower than those of the aggressor.

Similarly, HPM weapons could provide a nonkinetic means of disabling adversary electronics and communications systems. These weapons could potentially generate effects over wider areas than HELs, which emit a narrower beam of energy. As a result, some analysts have noted that HPM weapons might provide more effective area defense against missile salvos and swarms of drones. HPM weapons have also been considered for use as nonlethal “heat ray” systems for crowd control. Directed-Energy Weapons Programs A number of countries are investing in directed-energy weapons programs. This In Focus discusses a selection of unclassified DE weapons programs in three leading military powers: the United States, China, and Russia. United States DOD requested approximately $1 billion for unclassified DE programs in FY2024. (For additional information about specific U.S. DE weapons programs, see CRS Report R44175, Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke, and CRS Report R45098, U.S. Army WeaponsRelated Directed Energy (DE) Programs: Background and Potential Issues for Congress, by Andrew Feickert.) DOD does not currently have any DE programs of record. DOD directed energy programs are coordinated by the Principal Director for Directed Energy within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD[R&E]). The Principal Director for Directed Energy is additionally responsible for development and oversight of the Directed Energy Roadmap. According to OUSD(R&E), DOD’s current DE roadmap outlines DOD’s plan to increase power levels of DE weapons from around 150 kilowatts (kW—a unit of power), as is currently feasible, to 300 kW by FY2023, “with goal milestones to achieve 500 kW class with reduced size and weight by FY2025 and to further reduce size and weight and increase power to MW [megawatt] levels by FY2026.” For reference, although there is no consensus regarding the precise power level that would be needed to neutralize different target sets, some analysts believe that lasers of around 100 kW could engage unmanned aircraft systems, small boats, rockets, artillery, and mortars, whereas lasers of around 300 kW could additionally engage cruise missiles flying in certain profiles (i.e., flying across—rather than at—the laser). Lasers of 1 MW could potentially neutralize ballistic missiles and hypersonic weapons. In addition to the DE roadmap, OUSD(R&E) manages the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), which former Principal Director for Directed Energy Dr. Jim Trebes notes is “to demonstrate laser output power scaling while maintaining or improving beam quality and efficiency.” HELSI is intended to strengthen the defense industrial base for potential future directed energy weapons by providing near-term prototyping opportunities for industry partners. Dr. Trebes additionally notes that OUSD(R&E) has completed a DOD-wide Laser Lethality Analysis Process Review to identify future needs for the Department and best practices for DE development and use. According to OUSD(R&E), DOD is also testing a Directed Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons https://crsreports.congress.gov Energy Lethality Database that is to serve as a searchable repository for the department’s DE analyses. China According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, China has been developing DE weapons since at least the 1980s and has made steady progress in developing HPM and increasingly powerful HELs. China has reportedly developed a 30-kilowatt roadmobile HEL, LW-30, designed to engage unmanned aircraft systems and precision-guided weapons. Reports indicate that China is also developing an airborne HEL pod. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, China is additionally pursuing DE weapons to disrupt, degrade, or damage satellites and their sensors and possibly already has a limited capability to employ laser systems against satellite sensors. China [has likely fielded] a ground-based laser weapon that can counter low-orbit spacebased sensors ... and by the mid-to-late 2020s, it may field higher power systems that extend the threat to the structures of non-optical satellites. Russia Russia has been conducting DE weapons research since the 1960s, with a particular emphasis on HELs. Russia has reportedly deployed the Peresvet ground-based HEL with several mobile intercontinental ballistic missile units. Although little is publicly known about Peresvet, including its power level, some analysts assert it is to dazzle satellites and provide point defense against unmanned aircraft systems. Russia’s deputy defense minister Alexei Krivoruchko has stated that efforts are underway to increase Peresvet’s power level and to deploy it on military aircraft. Reports suggest that Russia may also be developing HPMs as well as additional HELs capable of performing antisatellite missions. Potential Issues and Questions for Congress Technological Maturity Directed-energy weapons programs continue to face questions about their technological maturity, including the ability to improve beam quality and control to militarily useful levels and the ability to meet size, weight, and power (SWaP) and cooling requirements for integration into current platforms. Some DE systems are small enough to fit on military vehicles, but many require larger and/or fixed platforms that could potentially limit deployment options and operational utility. In what ways, if any, are DOD technology maturation efforts reducing the SWaP and cooling requirements of DE systems? Weapons Characteristics Although HELs may offer a lower cost per shot than traditional weapons such as missiles, they are also subject to a number of limitations. For example, atmospheric conditions (e.g., rain, fog, obscurants) and SWaP and cooling requirements can limit the range and beam quality of HELs, in turn reducing their effectiveness. Traditional weapons, in contrast, are not affected by these factors. How, if at all, might HEL limitations be mitigated by technological developments, concepts of operation, or other methods? What impact might a failure to mitigate these limitations have on future military operations? Mission Utility Given the strengths and weaknesses of DE weapons, DOD is continuing to examine their role within the military. DOD is additionally conducting multiple utility studies to analyze potential concepts of operation for DE weapons and to assess the scenarios in which they might be militarily useful. How might Congress draw upon the conclusions of these analyses as it conducts oversight of DE weapons programs? What is the appropriate balance between DE weapons and traditional munitions within the military’s portfolio of capabilities? Defense Industrial Base Some analysts have expressed concerns that, in the past, DOD did not provide stable funding for DE weapons programs or sufficient opportunities for the DE workforce. According to OUSD(R&E), HELSI is intended to address these concerns by providing industry with assured prototyping opportunities. In what ways, if any, has HELSI strengthened the defense industrial base for DE weapons? What, if any, challenges does the base continue to face and how might they be mitigated?

Intelligence Requirements

Some analysts have questioned whether DOD has sufficient knowledge of adversary DE weapons systems and materials to develop its weapons requirements. DOD is currently attempting to further define its DE collection requirements for the intelligence community (IC) through the Directed Energy Lethality Intelligence initiative. To what extent, if at all, is this initiative improving connectivity between DOD’s DE community and the IC? What collection requirements, if any, remain? Coordination within DOD Pursuant to Section 219 of the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 114-328), OUSD(R&E)’s Principal Director for Directed Energy is tasked with coordinating DE efforts across DOD and with developing DOD’s Directed Energy Roadmap, which is to guide development efforts. To what extent are the military departments and defense agencies adhering to this roadmap? What, if any, additional authorities or structural changes would be required to ensure proper coordination throughout DOD? Related CRS Products CRS Report R46925, Department of Defense Directed Energy Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress, coordinated by Kelley M. Sayler. This report was originally co-authored by John Hoehn. Kelley M. Sayler, Analyst in Advanced Technology and Global Security IF11882 Defense Primer: Directed-Energy Weapons https://crsreports.congress.gov | IF11882 · VERSION 8 · UPDATED Disclaimer This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role. CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However, as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material"

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11882

It's hard to see how the fishing industry will pick itself up again. Takeshi is moving away from the coast as is his neighbor and fellow fisherman. His wife has refused to return here since the tsunami hit. At the age of 77, he is unlikely to be able to start from scratch. But he picks up any remnants of his fishing gear he can find, just in case. What is left intact barely fills one small basket. His neighbor finds his clock. It has stopped at 3:22pm -- the exact moment his life changed and countless others ended." Misplaced trust: 30-foot tsunami wall didn't save Japanese village by Paul Hancocks

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/31/japan.tsunami.village/index.html

Skull and Bones, The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut."

"There is a secret that binds the two men who would be the next leader of the free world. President George W Bush and Senator John Kerry both spent a portion of their youth laying bare their sex lives in Gothic rituals presided over by a human skull and the skeletal remains of various other animal species in a windowless building known as the Tomb. They also formed an unusual attachment to the number 322, which holds a special resonance for the club's members." Skeletons in the closet

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/may/20/usa.internationaleducationnews

"It is perhaps worth noting, in light of George W.'s controversial episode at Bob Jones University and the specter of anti-Catholicism, that at one point in the proceedings every initiate kisses the slippered toe of the "Pope." At last the initiate is formally dubbed a Knight of Eulogia. Amid more raucous ritual he is cast from the room into the waiting arms of the patriarchs."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/george-w-knight-of-eulogia/304686/

A major landslide occurred 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Oso, Washington, United States, on March 22, 2014 (3/22/2014), at 10:37 a.m. local time. A portion of an unstable hill collapsed, sending mud and debris to the south across the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, engulfing a rural neighborhood, and covering an area of approximately 1 square mile (2.6 km2). Forty-three people were killed and 49 homes and other structures destroyed."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Oso_mudslide

Published: 10 October 1996

Russian documents Set out 'tectonic weapon' research

Carl Levitin

Moscow. The first official details have emerged in Moscow of ambitious research into 'tectonic warfare' carried out by the former Soviet Union and subsequently by the government of Russia, and involving atte mpts to stimulate 'artificial' earthquakes as weapons of destruction. According to documents obtained by the newspaper Moscow News, two research programmes, the first known as ' Mercury ' and the second as ' Volcano', were aimed at creating new earthquake epicentres by using underground nuclear explosions . Geophysicists are aware that impending earthquakes may be triggered by underground nuclear explosions . But Western geophysicists remain sceptical about tectonic warfare and have all but abandoned research after two unsuccessful phases of activity in the 1960s and 1980s, says Roger Clark, a lecturer in geophysics at the University of Leeds. Clark is not at all surprised that th e Russians tried to create earthquakes and control their location electromagnetically, however. "This sort of science is very much part of their heritage. We don't think it is impossible, or wrong , but past experience suggests it is very, very unlikely. "

The programme , which was secretly launched by the Communist rulers of the former Soviet Union in 1987, and has been unofficially known to Western geophysicists for several years, is now believed to have been abandoned. It would certainly contravene the terms of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which Russia signe d at the United Nations in Geneva last month . The Mercury project was launched in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, but came to a halt when the republic became independent. It was superseded by the Volcano project. Three underground nuclear tests are believed to have taken place at sites in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the documents, the Mercury project was launched by a secret decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. The objective was to "develop a methodology for remote operation on an earthquake epicentre by using weak seismic fields and research possibilities of transferring the seismic energy of an explosion ".

The documents say that the Mercury project involved 22 scientific and industrial organizations, including the Geological Institute of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences in Baku. The remit extended to developing the electronic equipment to be installed aboard space satellites that would control the tectonic weapon. The scientists were given three years to complete research, with testing planned for 1990.

During the research phase, Azerbaijani scientists grew increasingly confident and, according to the documents, were sure that " after [a] nuclear explosion, subterranean energy may accumulate at huge distances from the epicentre and reach massive capacity, after which the next directed explosion can release it all ".

Underground testing began at the town of Batken in Kyrgyzstan, and was directed by lkram Ke rimov , of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. The documents say that scientists detonated an underground nuclear charge and tried to control the direction of seismic energy release d using British-built equipment known as 'system 9690 ' .

A report prepared by the Mozhaisky Military Engineering Institute concluded that the test had been a success. But progress slowed considerably following Azerbaijan's independence from the Soviet Union. At about this time , Russia embarked on a more comprehensive tectonic warfare programme known as the Volcano project. The Earth Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) became the project headquarters .

Research was scheduled to be completed in 1992, with underground testing beginning the following year. The final test was carried out at a place code-named S36NZ-0Kh; Moscow News believes the letters 'NZ' refer to Novaya Zemlya, where Soviet nuclear testing began in the 1950s."

https://www.nature.com/articles/383471a0

Extrusive (Volcanic) Rock Classification

Volcanic rocks are classified based on their chemical composition as determined by analytical techniques that identify the proportion of major elements found in them. Unlike for plutonic rocks, it is not possible to classify volcanic rocks based on the minerals found in them.

Some volcanic rocks contain some crystals (phenocrysts) that grew in the magma chamber prior to eruption, but others contain no crystals at all or are volcanic glass (obsidian).

In addition to the mafic (low silica) basalt, and the silicic rhyolite, several subdivisions exist between the two compositional end members.

https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/igneous.htm

THE CONCLAVE OR CELESTIAL CITY

Containing an epitome of the twelve degrees of the Philosophic Chamber of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

The twelve degrees preceding the Rose Croix are as we have shown, associated with the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

From these fixed signs, the Rite passes to the Sun, Moon and the Planets.

From these the Rite looks to the four elements or four components of man, etc., and from these it considers the spirit and matter, or infinite and finite of the Universe and of man.

In the Rose Croix Degree, we have seen the son of masonry and heard the promise of universal peace and joy. Now let us proceed to seek the methods of realization, and learn how to restore the lost Eden and reedify the Celestial City."

Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated

THE COMPLETE RITUAL OF THE

Ancient AND Accepted Scottish Rite,

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.

Volume 2

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/scotchritemasonr02blan/scotchritemasonr02blan.pdf

Very soon now, it will no longer be a mystery of 'when' these events will take place; they will have become a terrible reality. Where then, will each of us stand on these issues, when the onslaught actually begins? Quickly it will be seen that the New Ager's counterfeit messiah, Lord #Maitreya, is also the same person as the #Pontifex Maximus pope of Rome, who then will take the reins of the New World Order. The deceptions will mesh wonderfully together, as the "World Harmonic Convergence" accomplishes new values for mankind in the cooperation, collaboration and unification on behalf of the "Spirit of the Earth." For those of you who read this book, be patient, it won't be long and you will know that it revealed to you the truth.

Also, it is only a matter of time when Pope John Paul II, old and tired, will succumb to his great age, and his mantle will then go to a more younger and aggressive pope. By him, a work will now be accomplished, known as the "Era of Reseeding" when major population areas will be 'thinned out' and the human population will be resettled. Finally, will come the "Era of the New Harmony" and the "Crystal Kingdom" of the earth will be set up. This is the glorious version of Rome's final victory and total conquest of humanity. But there is one last crowning act that is needed to make this masterpiece of deception complete.

FALSE MESSIAH OCCUPIES JERUSALEM

The counterfeit surpassing all other counterfeits, Rome has now fulfilled its grandest dreams. The entire world lays in shambles at its feet. "Order out of Chaos" ,was its beloved motto.

Now the 'great pretender' , the Pontifex Maximus pope declares himself to be God over all the earth! Not content with just being ruler of all the earth - but "is worshiped; so that he as God sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

Only a Luciferic mind could think like that.

After usurping the very exalted position of grandeur, magnificence, majesty and sovereignty of God Himself - what other place would he choose to locate his Crystal Kingdom headquarters - other than where the God of creation has placed His own Holy name Jerusalem; where else? Rome has always had its covetous eye set on Jerusalem. The Crusaders were sent there to conquer it, after which, the Knights Templar were named after its temple. And now the Pontifex Maximus pope, dripping in blood of the world's innocents, claims this city as his too; to be the headquarters for ruling his New World Order.

Does all of this sound like some grotesque farcy tale or the terror of some fearsome nightmare? Oh my friend, how I wish that could really be the case; that we could actually wake up and none of this would really be true, and I could be called a liar. What I wouldn't give, if I could make that be so. But for all the sadness and horror it brings, it must be acknowledged that it is the truth. Not because man says so, but because God's Word has declared it. There is only one way to face the onslaught that is just ahead. We must fully trust our life into the hands of God, and then resolve in our minds that we are going to be killed; forgetting entirely the thought that we might be fortunate enough to escape. That is how thoroughly God's people are going to be rooted out. Know for sure in your own mind - they can kill your body ever so dead, but they can never take your life - if it is in Christ Jesus. That belongs to God alone.

Very soon, God's people are going to be confronted with the exact same experience as our Lord and Saviour. To know and look straight into the face of death - and yes, by the very same executioner - Rome. But our Lord loved you, dear reader, and me, and all, that He gave up His own life for ours. We must now respond to that love and be resolved to die also for Him, standing firm for His truth, as He died for us. And Rome can not kill us so dead, that our mighty God can not raise us back up to life. Not the miserable life we know now but incorruptible life for eternity. A quick calculation will tell you, that if one third of the earth's population, or nearly two billion people, are going to be slaughtered, only a minuscule fraction of that amount are fundamentalist Christians . That means a huge amount of people are going to die that are not Christians. Sadly, beyond any comprehension, they will have died for a very lost cause.

From all the horror, misery, and bloodshed, people universally, will become utterly paralyzed from sheer shock.

And to the overwhelming majority of them, sadly, this life is their only world, as they watch it being ripped apart; everywhere, nothing but chaos and devastation. They are terrified. They just do not understand! But there are a people that do understand; as they watch now with solemn awe, events occurring that they had known about and anticipated for many many years. This is what gives to God's people "hope". They know that God does not lie. God has given to His people promises, predictions, and prophecies that have never ever failed. That, dear friend, is wonderful, unselfish, and abiding love! - that builds unswerving trust. And no other promise is so deeply embedded into their hearts, than the one given that

Christ will soon return and redeem His people out of this wretched world. It buoys their spirits, as it assures them precious

'hope'.

Five hundred years before Jesus Christ walked the earth, God revealed to His people that Rome's false messiah, in the very end times, would "plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain." In other words, Jerusalem. (Daniel 11:45) What an incredible God we have! But notice how God describes it. He calls Rome setting up its New World Order headquarters in Jerusalem the "abomination that maketh desolate." In fact, Christ Himself prophesied that Rome would invade Jerusalem soon after His departure from earth, which it did in A.D.70. And this first invasion was to become a "type" for when it would occur again, with vengeance, in the very end time."

CHAPTER 17 "TWO OCCULT POWERS UNITED FOR FINAL WORLD

CONTROL"

The Grand Design Exposed

by John Daniel

http://www.granddesignexposed.com/contents.html

Pink Floyd - One of these days (HQ - The Director's Cut)

Bruno Calderon

Video extracted from the DVD Pink Floyd Live @ Pompeii (The Director's Cut)

Thank you Nick Mason!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1kZ6M2aMvw

Today in Pro Wrestling History

January 8 at 2:56 AM ·

Bull Nakano turns 57 today!

She was recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2024.

#WWE #prowrestling #wrestling #WWEHallOfFame #wrestler

https://www.facebook.com/todayprowrestlinghistory/posts/pfbid02yR6hSjgDa8ainpjrgnm952CTbJqC3SHtje6ciH8SWfPykmXUaCpuVofEfh1BXRvSl

Jesuit Matteo Ricci, Father of Communist China, 1583/1983 #572

The Order’s 16th Century’s conspiracy was to first conquer Japan and then China. Failing for over 200 years, the Order finally conquered Japan in 1868, Emperor Meiji to build an empire serving as “the Sword of the Church” during WWII. Using its American “Sword of the Church,” Japan was submitted to the rule of the Black Pope in 1945, as was China in 1949. Though Chairman Mao OPENLY expelled the Order in 1949, the Jesuits SECRETLY were Communist China’s masters, using their American Empire to both erect and support the Order’s Inquisition in the Far East. Since the “end of the Cold War,” the US has given high technology to Red China preparing her for America’s Sino invasion. The “Senior Honorary Advisor” for China’s COSCO, is SMOM Alexander Haig. Jesuits: A Multibiography, Jean Lacouture, (Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1995).

Vatican Assassins Third Edition

by Eric Jon Phelps

https://ia802505.us.archive.org/28/items/EricJonPhelpsVaticanAssassins3rdEdition/Eric%20Jon%20Phelps%20-%20Vatican%20Assassins%203rd%20Edition.pdf

Spaniard becomes Jesuits' new "black pope"

By Reuters

January 19, 20085:07 AM PSTUpdated 17 years ago

By Stephen Brown

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Spaniard Adolfo Nicolas was elected the Jesuits' "black pope", as the head of the largest and perhaps most influential, controversial and prestigious Catholic order is known, in a secret conclave on Saturday.

Nicolas, 71, has run Jesuit operations in east Asia and Oceania since 2004 and spent most of his career in the Far East after being ordained in Tokyo in 1967.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL19414053/

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

BULL of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302

For, according to the Blessed Dionysius, it is a law of the divinity that the lowest things reach the highest place by intermediaries. Then, according to the order of the universe, all things are not led back to order equally and immediately, but the lowest by the intermediary, and the inferior by the superior. Hence we must recognize the more clearly that spiritual power surpasses in dignity and in nobility any temporal power whatever, as spiritual things surpass the temporal. This we see very clearly also by the payment, benediction, and consecration of the tithes, but the acceptance of power itself and by the government even of things. For with truth as our witness, it belongs to spiritual power to establish the terrestrial power and to pass judgement if it has not been good. Thus is accomplished the prophecy of Jeremias concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power: ‘Behold to-day I have placed you over nations, and over kingdoms‘ and the rest. Therefore, if the terrestrial power err, it will be judged by the spiritual power; but if a minor spiritual power err, it will be judged by a superior spiritual power; but if the highest power of all err, it can be judged only by God, and not by man, according to the testimony of the Apostle: ‘The spiritual man judgeth of all things and he himself is judged by no man‘ [1 Cor 2:15]. This authority, however, (though it has been given to man and is exercised by man), is not human but rather divine, granted to Peter by a divine word and reaffirmed to him (Peter) and his successors by the One Whom Peter confessed, the Lord saying to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in Heaven‘ etc., [Mt 16:19]. Therefore whoever resists this power thus ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God [Rom 13:2], unless he invent like Manicheus two beginnings, which is false and judged by us heretical, since according to the testimony of Moses, it is not in the beginnings but in the beginning that God created heaven and earth [Gen 1:1]. Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff."

https://www.papalencyclicals.net/bon08/b8unam.htm

Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and accelerating projectiles so as to achieve a desired performance.

A ballistic body is a free-moving body with momentum, which can be subject to forces such as those exerted by pressurized gases from a gun barrel or a propelling nozzle, normal force by rifling, and gravity and air drag during flight.

A ballistic missile is a missile that is guided only during the relatively brief initial phase of powered flight, with the trajectory subsequently governed by the laws of classical mechanics, in contrast to (for example) a cruise missile, which is aerodynamically guided in powered flight like a fixed-wing aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistics

MGM agrees to pay victims of Las Vegas shooting up to $800 million

Nation Oct 3, 2019 11:50 AM EST

FILE PHOTO: People stand behind police barrier tape outside the Luxor hotel Obelisk and the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, following a mass shooting at the Route 91 Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 2, 2017. Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Attorneys for thousands of victims of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history said Thursday that they reached a settlement expected to pay between $735 million and $800 million to those who sued over the Las Vegas massacre.

The amount of the settlement with MGM Resorts International depends on the number of plaintiffs who take part, according to a statement from Las Vegas law firm Eglet Adams, which represents nearly 2,500 victims and made the announcement just days after the second anniversary of the massacre.

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against the owner of the Mandalay Bay resort where the gunman opened fire into an outdoor concert on Oct. 1, 2017. The casino giant also owns the venue where 58 people died and hundreds were injured.

“Our goal has always been to resolve these matters so our community and the victims and their families can move forward in the healing process,” said Jim Murren, chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts. “This agreement with the plaintiffs’ counsel is a major step, and one that we hoped for a long time would be possible.”

An independent administrator will be appointed by a court to dole out money from the settlement fund, attorneys and MGM said. They expect to wrap up the process by late next year.

MGM’s insurers will fund a minimum of $735 million. Depending on the number of victims who participate, the company will contribute more, up to $800 million, according to the victims’ attorneys.

“Today’s agreement marks a milestone in the recovery process for the victims of the horrifying events of 1 October,” Robert Eglet, a lead plaintiffs’ counsel, said in the statement. “While nothing will be able to bring back the lives lost or undo the horrors so many suffered on that day, this settlement will provide fair compensation for thousands of victims and their families.”

He said the deal “represents good corporate citizenship” by MGM Resorts.

The statement comes as another attorney for victims planned a news conference on “extremely important developments” Thursday in San Diego.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/mgm-agrees-to-pay-victims-of-las-vegas-shooting-up-to-800-million

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

Beelzebub or Baʿal Zebub (/biːˈɛlzəbʌb, ˈbiːl-/[1] bee-EL-zə-bub, BEEL-; Hebrew: בַּעַל־זְבוּב‎ Baʿal-zəḇūḇ), also spelled Beelzebul or Belzebuth, and occasionally known as the Lord of the Flies, is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshipped in Ekron. In some Abrahamic religions he is described as a major demon. The name Beelzebub is associated with the Canaanite god Baal.

In theological sources, predominantly Christian, Beelzebub is another name for Satan. He is known in demonology as one of the seven deadly demons or seven princes of Hell, Beelzebub representing gluttony and envy. The Dictionnaire Infernal describes Beelzebub as a being capable of flying, known as the "Lord of the Flyers", or the "Lord of the Flies".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub

8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Matthew 4:8-11

Rabbinic tradition equates Baʿal Berith with Beelzebub, "the lord of flies," the god of Philistine Ekron (2 Kings 1:2).[12] He was worshipped in the shape of a fly; and Jewish tradition states that so addicted were the Jews to his cult that they would carry an image of him in their pockets, producing it, and kissing it from time to time. Baʿal Zebub was called Baʿal Berith because such Jews might be said to make a covenant of devotion with the idol, being unwilling to part with it for a single moment.[13] According to another conception, Baʿal Berith was an obscene article of idolatrous worship, possibly a simulacrum priapi.[14] This is evidently based on the later use of the word "berit" to refer to circumcision.[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_Berith

Smith's Bible Dictionary - Baal

Baal, [N] [B] [E] [H]

the supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations, as Ashtoreth was their supreme female divinity. Some suppose Baal to correspond to the sun and Ashtoreth to the moon; others that Baal was Jupiter and Ashtoreth Venus. There can be no doubt of the very high antiquity of the worship of Baal. It prevailed in the time of Moses among the Moabites and Midianites, ( Numbers 22:41 ) and through them spread to the Israelites. ( Numbers 25:3-18 ; 4:3 ) In the times of the kings it became the religion of the court and people of the ten tribes, ( 1 Kings 16:31-33 ; 1 Kings 18:19 1 Kings 18:22 ) and appears never to have been permanently abolished among them. ( 2 Kings 17:16 ) Temples were erected to Baal in Judah, ( 1 Kings 16:32 ) and he was worshipped with much ceremony. ( 1 Kings 18:19 1 Kings 18:26-28 ; 2 Kings 10:22 ) The attractiveness of this worship to the Jews undoubtedly grew out of its licentious character. We find this worship also in Phoenician colonies. The religion of the ancient British islands much resembled this ancient worship of Baal, and may have been derived from it. Nor need we hesitate to regard the Babylonian Bel, ( Isaiah 46:1 ) or Beaus, as essentially identical with Baal, though perhaps under some modified form. The plural, BAALIM, is found frequently, showing that he was probably worshipped under different compounds, among which appear--

BAAL-BERITH (the covenant Baal ), ( Judges 8:33 ; 9:4 ) the god who comes into covenant with the worshippers.

BAAL-ZEBUB (lord of the fly ), and worshipped at Ekron. ( 2 Kings 1:2 2 Kings 1:3 2 Kings 1:16 )

BAAL-HANAN. a. The name of one of the early kings of Edom. ( Genesis 36:38 Genesis 36:39 ; 1 Chronicles 1:49 1 Chronicles 1:50 ) b. The name of one of Davids officers, who had the superintendence of his olive and sycamore plantations. ( 1 Chronicles 27:28 )

BAAL-PEOR (lord of the opening , i.e. for others to join in the worship). We have already referred to the worship of this god. The narrative (Numb 25) seems clearly to show that this form of Baal-worship was connected with licentious rites.

[N] indicates this entry was also found in Nave's Topical Bible

[B] indicates this entry was also found in Baker's Evangelical Dictionary

[E] indicates this entry was also found in Easton's Bible Dictionary

[H] indicates this entry was also found in Hitchcock's Bible Names

Bibliography Information

Smith, William, Dr. "Entry for 'Baal,'". "Smith's Bible Dictionary". . 1901.

Smith's Bible Dictionary - Baal

Baal, [N] [B] [E] [H]

geographical. This word occurs as the prefix or suffix to the names of several places in Palestine, some of which are as follows:

BAAL a town of Simeon, named only in ( 1 Chronicles 4:33 ) which from the parallel list in ( Joshua 19:8 ) seems to have been identical with BAALATH-BEER.

BAALAH (mistress ). a. Another name for KIRJATH-JEARIM, or KIRJATH BAAL, the well-known town now Kuriet el Enab . ( Joshua 15:9 Joshua 15:10 ; 1 Chronicles 13:6 ) b. A town in the south of Judah, ( Joshua 15:29 ) which in Josh 19:3 is called BALAH, and in the parallel list, ( 1 Chronicles 4:29 ) BILHAH.

BAALATH (mistress ), a town of Dan named with Gibbethon, Gath-rim-mon and other Philistine places. ( Joshua 19:44 )

BAALATH-BEER (lord of the well ). BAAL 1, a town among those in the south part of Judah, given to Simeon, which also bore the name of RAMATH-NEGEB, or "the height of the south." ( Joshua 19:8 )

BAAL-GAD (lord of fortune ), used to denote the most northern, ( Joshua 11:17 ; 12:7 ) or perhaps northwestern, ( Joshua 13:5 ) point to which Joshuas victories extended. It was in all probability a Phoenician or Canaanite sanctuary of Baal under the aspect of Gad or Fortune.

BAAL-HAMON (lord of a multitude ), a place at which Solomon had a vineyard, evidently of great extent. ( Solomon 8:11 )

BAAL-HAZOR (village of Baal ), a place where Absalom appears to have had a sheep-farm, and where Amnon was murdered. ( 2 Samuel 13:23 )

MOUNT MOUNT BAAL-HERMON (Lord of Hermon ), ( Judges 3:3 ) and simply Baal-hermon. ( 1 Chronicles 5:23 ) This is usually considered as a distinct place from Mount Hermon; but we know that this mountain had at least three names ( 3:9 ) and Baal-hermon may have been a fourth in use among the Phoenician worshippers.

BAAL-MEON (lord of the house ), one of the towns which were built by the Reubenites. ( Numbers 32:38 ) It also occurs in ( 1 Chronicles 5:8 ) and on each occasion with Nebo. In the time of Ezekiel it was Moabite, one of the cities which were the "glory of the country." ( Ezekiel 25:9 )

BAAL-PERAZIM (lord of divisions ), the scene of a victory of David over the Philistines, and of a great destruction of their images. ( 2 Samuel 5:20 ; 1 Chronicles 14:11 ) See ( Isaiah 28:21 ) where it is called MOUNT MOUNT PERAZIM.

BAAL-SHALISHA (lord of Shalisha ), a place named only in ( 2 Kings 4:42 ) apparently not far from Gilgal; comp. ( 2 Kings 4:38 )

BAAL-TAMAR (lord of the palm tree ), a place named only in ( Judges 20:33 ) as near Gibeah of Benjamin. The palm tree (tamar ) of Deborah, ( Judges 4:5 ) was situated somewhere in the locality, and is possibly alluded to.

BAAL-ZEPHON (lord of the north ), a place in Egypt near where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. ( Numbers 33:7 ; Ezekiel 14:2 Ezekiel 14:9 ) We place Baal-zephon on the western shore of the Gulf of Suez, a little below its head, which at that time was about 30 or 40 miles northward of the Present head.

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/baal/

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

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

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

India and Persia were to be overcome by force of arms, he announced. To that end, many more were to be enrolled into the ranks of the Illuminated. Enthusiastic scenes throughout Afghanistan resulted from the proclamation, which was carried far and wide, to the accompaniment of kettle-drums, wild sword-dances. [And] when he was ready Bayezid attended by his halka, or circle of dervishes, led the campaign into the lush land of India. Intercepted by the Moshin Khan whom he had earlier escaped, he was wounded, put to flight, and [he] eventually died as a result of this encounter. "His son, Omar Ansari, proclaimed himself leader, and immediately ordered an attack upon the Pathan tribe of the Yusufzai who had allied themselves with the Moghul. He was killed by the hillmen, and his own son, 'The Servant of the One', took over the leadership. [And] by the middle of the seventeenth century this youth had been killed defending his castle against a Moghul expeditionary force. His infant son escaped with some of his followers, into Afghanistan proper, where the cult was restarted. The descendants of this Abdul-Qadir (Servant of the Powerful) continued to rule the fanatics, and to send their teachers far and wide. The creed eventually split into two divisions: the military and the religious, and nowadays it is only the followers of the latter [WAY] who survived, still a secret cult, which might, given the right conditions, have touched off a movement as important as that of the Assassins. "[Now,] forty years after the last religio-military leader of the Afghan Illuminated Ones died, a society of the same name (the Illuminati) came into being in Germany, formed, it is said, by Adam Weishaupt, the [young Jesuit priest, a] professor of Canon Law at [the Jesuit] Ingolstadt University. Coincidences of date and beliefs connect these Bavarian Illuminati with the Afghan ones, and also with the other cults which called themselves 'Illuminated'. [William Cooper: In actual fact, they are all the same.] [In] the beginning of the seventeenth century saw the foundation of the Illuminated Ones of Spain -- the Alumbrados, condemned in an edict of the Grand Inquisition of 1623."

[William Cooper]: Out of which the condemned Ignatius Loyola emerged as a man, as a man immune to prosecution, arrest, or accusation from any king, prince, or prelate, as the head of one of the most powerful secret societies ever organized, the Society of Jesus, now known as the Jesuits. Ignatius Loyola had been the leader of the Alumbrados in Spain. And it was his sect, the illuminated ones, or the Alumbrados, which became the Society of Jesus.

Hour 15: The Roshaniya (aired March 9th, 1993)

https://viefag.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/transcripts-of-william-cooper-s-mystery-babylon-series.pdf

Thus, contrary to accepted opinion the Illuminati did not begin with Adam Weishaupt, but had always been a major influence in Jesuitism, from the time the Society of Jesus was founded by Loyola. In fact, Leopold Engel says that Weishaupt was the head of the revived Order of the Illuminati. Indeed, Weishaupt himself originally claimed that the Illuminati originated from the Zoroastrian religion of the last King of Persia, Yadzegerd III (632-651 B.C.).

Catholic priest Fr. John Hogan is even more conclusive. He writes: "The Jesuits are well-known... [as] ... reforms of older orders..." And the Jesuit priest Malachi Martin said the same thing. We quote again the observation of Schuster: "It is a strange phenomenon in the history of the Roman church, [that] every time there is a crisis of extraordinary value, new Masonic Orders are called forth and that is how the Jesuit came into being.

If we look at the Illuminati we will see a direct semblance between Jesuitism and Illuminism. No marvel, for as we saw, Weishaupt based his Order on the Constitutions of the Jesuits! Thus it is impossible to resist the conviction that Weishaupt simply disavowed and distanced himself from the Jesuits after 1773 to keep his professorship, while remaining a Jesuit, and so he was able to more effectively work for the revival of his Order." [Emphasis supplied]"

page 265

"Ruling Through the Bavarian Illuminati"

Codeword Barbelon book One

by P.D. Stuart

What does it mean to be double-minded?

The term double-minded comes from the Greek word dipsuchos, meaning “a person with two minds or souls.” It’s interesting that this word appears only in the book of James (James 1:8; 4:8). Bible scholars conclude that James might have coined this word. To grasp the full meaning of this word, it is best to understand how it is used within its context.

James writes of the doubting person that he is “like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does” (James 1:6–8). A doubter is a double-minded person. Jesus had in mind such a person when He spoke of the one who tries to serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). As such, he is “unstable,” which comes from a Greek word meaning “unsteady, wavering, in both his character and feelings.”

A double-minded person is restless and confused in his thoughts, his actions, and his behavior. Such a person is always in conflict with himself. One torn by such inner conflict can never lean with confidence on God and His gracious promises. Correspondingly, the term unstable is analogous to a drunken man unable to walk a straight line, swaying one way, then another. He has no defined direction and as a result doesn’t get anywhere. Such a person is “unstable in all he does.”

Those who are double-minded do not have the faith spoken of in Hebrews 11:1, 3: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. . . . By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” We cannot be both “certain” and doubting, as is the double-minded person. One part of his mind is sure of something, while the other part doubts. It brings to mind the “pushmi-pullyu” of the Dr. Doolittle stories, an animal with a head at either end of its body and which was constantly trying to walk in two directions at once. Such is the double-minded man.

Jesus declared, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). God and the things of this world are of such opposite natures that it is impossible to love either one completely without hating the other. Those who try to love both will become unstable in all their ways. If someone struggles with being double-minded, he or she should read, study, and memorize the Word, for it is the Word of God that produces faith (Romans 10:17). And he or she should pray for faith. God freely gives what is good to those who ask Him (Luke 11:9–12), and it’s good to ask for an increase of faith (Luke 17:5; Mark 9:24).

https://www.gotquestions.org/double-minded.html

Pope Francis urges people to get vaccinated against Covid-19

Pope Francis launches a powerful appeal for people to get vaccinated with approved Covid-19 vaccines, calling it “an act of love.”

By Devin Watkins

August 18 2021

The Pope has joined his voice to those of Bishops across North and South America to urge people to get jabbed against Covid-19.

In a video message produced in conjunction with the Ad Council, Pope Francis praised the work of researchers and scientists in producing safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines.

“Thanks to God’s grace and to the work of many, we now have vaccines to protect us from Covid-19,” he said in the video released on Wednesday.

He added that vaccines “bring hope to end the pandemic, but only if they are available to all and if we collaborate with one another.”

Vaccination is an act of love

Pope Francis went on to say that getting a Covid jab that is “authorized by the respective authorities” is an “act of love.”

Helping other do the same, he said, is also an act of love. “Love for oneself, love for our families and friends, and love for all peoples. Love is also social and political.”

The Pope noted that social and political love is built up through “small, individual gestures capable of transforming and improving societies.”

“Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable,” he said.

Pope Francis then prayed to God that “each one of us can make his or her own small gesture of love.”

“No matter how small, love is always grand,” he said. “Small gestures for a better future.”

Listen to our report

‘Strength of faith’

The Pope was joined in the video by several Cardinals and Archbishops from across the Americas.

Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Archbishop of Los Angeles, lamented the suffering and death the pandemic has wrought across the globe.

He prayed that God might “grant us the grace to face it with the strength of faith, ensuring that vaccines are available for all, so that we can all get immunized.”

Mexican Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes linked Covid-19 jabs to a better future for all.

“From North to South America, we support vaccinations for all,” said the Cardinal.

Safe, effective vaccines

Honduran Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga said the world has much to learn from the coronavirus.

“But one thing is certain: the authorized vaccines are effective, and are here to save lives,” he said. “They are the key to a path of personal and universal healing.”

Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes praised the “heroic efforts” of health professionals in developing “safe and effective” jabs.

He also repeated the Pope’s affirmation that “getting vaccinated is an act of love”.

Salvadorian Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez said vaccination helps protect the most vulnerable.

“Our choice to get vaccinated affects others,” he said, adding that it is a moral responsibility.

Unity across the Americas

Peruvian Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos rounded out the testimonies contained in the video with an appeal to unity.

“We are united—North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean—to promote and support vaccination for all,” he said, encouraging everyone to “act responsibly, as members of the great human family, seeking and protecting our integral health and universal vaccination.”

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2021-08/pope-francis-appeal-covid-19-vaccines-act-of-love.html

A TRULY MYSTIC SEAL

THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES AND ITS MYSTIC SIGNIFICANCE

Most Americans have a dim idea that the Great Seal of their country shows an eagle, a constellation of stars, an olive branch signifying peace, and a set of thirteen arrows which probably means war in case of necessity, but few have ever seen the reverse side of the seal or even suspected its existence. Nor has the reverse side ever been cut, a strangely restraining hand having seemingly been laid upon every attempt to bring it before the public. When the large painting of the reverse side which was ordered made together with the familiar obverse, for the government display at the Chicago World's Fair, was to be hung, those in charge exclaimed: "What a peculiar design: Why were we given this inartistic symbol?" and once more the white stone was rejected, the painting was turned face to the wall and only the obverse side displayed. But the time has now come when the full knowledge of her seal shall be made known to her people, for America must henceforth stand before the world as its teacher, leader and the promulgator of a new and perfect system of ethics, religious leadership, a citizenship that is efficient and free, a just industrial democracy, and a justice and generosity to other nations that shall emphasize the brotherhood of man and the Fatherland of God. Late in the afternoon of July 4th, 1776, the new Continental Congress "Resolved, that Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams and Mr. Jefferson be a committee to prepare a device for the Seal of the United States of America." That committee was identical save for the omission of Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman with that which had drawn up the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration had been signed about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and Congress desired to at once complete the evidences of the independence of the United States by formally adopting an official sign of sovereignty and a national coat of arms.

The arms of England, the mother country, expressed the union of Judah's lion, with the unicorn of "Lost Israel" in accordance with the Science of Heraldry, but the young republic had finished with thrones and crowns and must blaze a new path through the forest of liberty, which should express her descent from all christian nations and hold open a door for all other races which should seek help and shelter upon her shores. A knowledge of heraldy was considered a part of an education in the early colonial days, and it was through William Barton son of the rector of St. James Episcopal church of Philadelphia, learned in heraldry, and through Baron Prestwich, of England, that the designs expressive of American destiny were given and drawn. Yet other dabblers in heraldry failed utterly to understand the mystic meaning of the seals. Professor Charles Elliott Norton, of Harvard, regretted its lack of art, and complained it could never be other than a dull masonic emblem, while a Mr. Wilson, considered a great historical scholar, declared the reverse side "in very bad taste, unintelligent and commonplace, and if it can be laid away and kept in the dark why not keep it so!" Even the constellation of thirteen stars came in for criticism, as "very bad heraldically." Again and again the pyramid with the white cope stone and the glory, were rejected, until in 1916 members of the Rose Cross Order, Illuminati, and others of the six pointed star of the seal, hung it officially in their class rooms and declared it as expressive of their philosophy-religion; the Bible wisdom of the common people rather than of the collegian. In the two sides of our seal are expressed in heraldry countless ages of the evolution of man, from the time of his socalled fall, through his progress in Egypt (eagleland), where for a time a wondrous race incarnated to build astounding monuments, receding, but returning again as the Hebraic Confederation to receive the knowledge of ancient Atlantis in the shade of its ancient altar, the Great Pyramid, uniting in a blaze of glory in the building of Solomon's Temple, parting, the northern tribes to leaven, though lost to history, all Europe, Judah and part of Benjamen and Levi, returning to hold Jerusalem until the Master Jesus should be born, journey down into 'Egypt to the ancient altar and receive light yet left in that land of darkness. "In that day shalt there be an altar to the Lord a pillar in the midst of Egypt, upon the borders thereof, and it shall be for a sign and a witness unto the Lord," said Isaiah. It is needless for learned historians to tell us, who hold the records, that the Great Pyramid is but six thousand years old, for we know it to have been built when the morning stars sang together and the "Sons of God" shouted for joy, in that far Edenic period, when Atlantis the mighty stood in her purity, where in part America now stands. Built at the center of the earth, as a temple of the highest initiation, symbolic of a perfect man, foursquare in body, mind, soul and spirit, with its white copestone, symbol of complete immortality, it represents the measure of the earth, as well as that of the universe, and the evolution of man through those countless ages of reincarnation now drawing to a close. Thither the Atlantians went for instruction in its galleries and rooms at the hands of mighty priests of the Priests of Melchisidek'''' and Osirian Brotherhoods, and throughout the succeeding ages those who would attain self mastery have turned their footsteps toward the ancient centers. "The last Cumaen Song now comes," wrote Virgil, who prophesied that a race should arise which would be offspring of all races and bring to an end the ages of iron (war) and usher in the Golden Age. Hence it was fitting that the mottos upon the reverse side of our seal above and below the pyramid should be taken from Virgil, "Annuit Coeptis," "Prosper us in our daring," and "Novus ordo seclorum," "a new and select order," which many of us have now the honor to have entered, and whose door we hold open to all who will accomplish the spiritual work necessary. "The day of freedom dawned upon the earth."

*As this book is being printed, we received information of two Associations using the title "Order of Melchizadek," or like it. One is a Spiritualistic body and the other a pure fraud. Neither body has the right to the title as this belongs to the Magi, who has used it for unknown years. Any body of men claiming, or using, this title does so without any authority and they are not members of any Order of Melchizadek. "Given by order of the Royal Fraternity Association, Incorporated."

And the infinite cycle of Atlantis was begun anew," wrote a poet, of the American Republic. In Central America there yet stands a companion pyramid, key to the connection of Atlantis, Egypt, and now American Atlantis rising again upon the great cycle. Hence Arcane and Magian learning which is the source of the Bible, could give no other symbolism to the young republic, than that of the ancient pyramid, its copestone and glory, significant of the descent of the New Jerusalem, for the one side, and the eagle, and the ever repeating thirteen of Mansasseh, thirteenth tribe of Israel and the son of Joseph (the Britons) who was separated from his brethren in Egypt, in the parting asunder of northern Israel from southern Judah, and first to cross Europe in search of the "isles afar off," to re-establish the ancient throne of Israel at Tava in Ireland, Turning the hitherto rejected reverse side of our seal to face the people of these United States, we remind them that they are called to a Great Work as offspring of all races, a mighty Mannasseh, whose history began in Genesis and culminates in America, and by whose stripes the whole world must be healed. Joseph, our father, married a daughter of a priest of the Temple of On, in Egypt, we are told, and today one pillar of that ancient Temple stands in London, while its mate stands in New York. These are reminders of our connection with Egypt, with all Europe, and with our father, Joseph, as an Anglo Saxon culmination of all Israel, and that through our union, between those pillars must all the world pass into Ephraim, or Shiloh, the Millenium to which Israel alone of all nations looked forward and by the measure of whose twelve tribes the whole earth was apportioned. "The whole Bible is written in the stars, both the law and the gospel, while estorically the entire story of man is set forth upon the sea of Manasseh. The obverse side is Israel in the Old Testament, the Reverse is the offspring of all Israel under the New Covenant, as the hope and outcome of Christianity. The two sides reflect each other and cannot be separated being the Bible in its most condensed form, summing up all old world history in twelve tribed Israel," says Professor Totten. Long ages before the discovery of America, Merlin of King Arthur's court wrote of our constellation of thirteen stars:

*'When the cock (France) shall woo the Dove (America) Mother and child shall cease to love (Rebellion of colonies) When the cock (France) shall guard the eagle's nest (France's aid) The stars (our constellation of 13) shall rise all in the west Then seven and six shall make but one (E Fluribus Unum) The Lion's might shall be undone."

The stars upon our seal are set in the form of a six pointed star or a double triangle. This was anciently called Solomon's Seal and was embroidered upon the curtain of the Temple, which hung before the Holy of Holies. At each point of the star was placed the symbol of an Order which set forth Arcane wisdom, and no man might pass into the Holy of Holies save he had mastered the learning of these Orders with safety to himself, because of the Presence upon the altar within. Today in America we have the restoration of this knowledge in these six Orders, the Order of Illuminati, Order of Rose Cross, Ancient Order of Alchemists, Fraternity of Osiris, The Magi and AEth Priesthood. The especial symbol of America, aside from the pyramid and eagle, is the white rose, identical in meaning with the white stone. The constellation of thirteen stars was in early drawings set in a wreath of White roses, showing that the early designers knew the future of American individual spiritual development. It is now drawn set in white clouds, but the white rose is ever the symbol of the American Rose Cross Order, and stands for spiritual attainment. Solomon's Temple was the Temple of a perfect man, and the Bible tells us of a three cornered cope stone which was rejected, but later became the headstone of the corner. We hear too in Genesis of Joseph, the keeper of the "stone of Israel," and it was with the Magian or Holy Grail teachings that the Britons crossed Europe to Arsareth, Land of Betrothal (Esdras 11-13 Chap. ) in search of a land where they might keep God's worship pure and undefiled. Hence through Joseph, who was separated from his brethren, we inherit the white stone of all Israel, cope stone of the pyramid, and of Solomon's Temple, that rock upon which Jesus reminded Peter, he should build His church, the rock of spiritual unfoldment within each individual, that the gates of hell (death) should not prevail against it. My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.—Gal. IV-19. Thus it was in keeping that an Englishman, Master of Heraldry, should give to the young republic, in the midst of its struggles to separate from the mother country, the design for the Great Seal, which should express the whole future of its work as a world teacher and exponent of the Christic teachings of the Holy Grail. The All Seeing Eye, looks down upon the ancient pyramid, which too symbolizes America and all she must mean to the world, out of a glory, sign of the descent of the New Jerusalem. This emblem, the eye, is as old as man's appearance upon earth, being found upon ancient Chaldean monuments, Egyptian and Greek, while the Arabians looking upon it named the Highest and Holiest name of God with hushed voices and whispered, "I am that I am." The triangle about the eye, stood from the most arcane times as the emblem of the Trinity, of Osiris, Isis and Horus, Father, Holy Ghost and Son, as they stand today with us, and in which is sealed the law of the eternal three of the universe and of men as its highest product. "I will guide thee with mine eye.—Psa. 32-8. Although writing is as old as Atlantis, and Adam, the only legend set in the Great Pyramid is esoteric, in numbers, measures, and weights, and in them may be read the ages just completed, and the prophesy of those yet to come. Of these great ages each with its leader as set forth in the application of the legend to the "Stone Kingdom cut out without hands," the greatest of all was the Master Initiate Jesus, who became the Christ, who descended into the grave and rising ascended Master over death, into heaven before the eyes of His disciples. Him especially and the return of the Christ Age, does the white cope stone represent, and after Him America as exponent of His teaching and life. America now prepares to become the headstone of all the world's ages when God in the Christ shall descend to crown the edifice of human liberty and immortality completed, and once more the morning stars shall sing together and the "Sons of God" shout for joy." Architecture, mystic numbers, heraldry and the heavens themselves are telling the great race in America of their destiny and responsibility. As the head, body and limbs of the great image, made of different metals represented each Messianic age, a new truth, and an empire directly relating to some manifestation of that truth, so must America represent the white stone, a nation fashioning itself until it shall have obtained the Messiahship over all nations, overshadowing all that has preceded it. This cannot be accomplished until each citizen shall throw aside the veil which lieth over his face, shall no longer see through the glass darkly, but face to face, when Judah shall no longer vex Israel nor Israel envy Judah, but prepare to come together into that land which the Lord has given them for an inheritance forever. The time has come spoken of by Isaiah, the prophet, when though the learned cannot read the book because it is sealed, nor the unlearned because he is unlettered, yet shall the book be unsealed, for the ancient wisdom applies to the individual and his following of the Christ in his quest of the Holy Grail, in the drinking of the cup of unselfishness, of his love for his neighbor and the stranger within the gates of our own Ellis Island, that the stranger may grow to the light of this republic, or carry its torch to other lands. Each fortunate heir of this glorious inheritance must seek the white stone which crowns the pyramid, within himself, in body, mind and soul, the Holy Trinity of each Son of God. Then may America realize her destiny as a city set upon a hill, a star that shall never go down, and the world ruler that shall call down the light of the New Jerusalem upon the battle scarred earth, the Christ to rule for a thousand years. Go ye therefore and teach all nations.—Matt. 28-19."

FUNDAMENTAL LAWS

A Report of the 68th Convocation of the Rosa Cross Order

https://ia600308.us.archive.org/24/items/fundamentallawsr00rose/fundamentallawsr00rose.pdf

Rosa Jesuitica, oder Jesuitische Rottgesellen, das ist, Eine Frag ob die Zween Orden, der ganandten Ritter von der Neerscharen Jesu, und der Rosen-Creuzer ein einiger Ordensen: per J. P. D. a S. Jesuitarum Protectorum. Prague, 1620.” (4to).

This is a truly curious tract upon the “relations of the Jesuits and the Rosicrucians."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dT28PyPUPfqDfC0iVg7nGFsle8vYBXLf/view

The history of the Giglio of Florence

August 16, 2013 9:25 am 27018

Giglio of Florence: The story behind the lily that turned out not be a lily at all.

The city of Florence has proudly carried the Giglio of Florence on her coat of arms for almost a thousand years. The origin of the lily symbol however is even more ancient and can be traced back to the ruling class of the Roman Empire. It is possible that the Florentine version was derived from that symbol, but there are also other legends surrounding the origin.

One of the stories tells that Florence was founded in 59 BC by the Romans in the period of the flower celebrations in honor of the goddess Flora and another that the city was named after its founder Florinus da Cellino: Florentia (Latin for flowering).

The simplest explanation for the symbol of Florence is that it was derived from the flower that traditionally grows in the area around the city: Iris Fiorentina.

One thing is certain: the Giglio of Florence (Florentine lily) is not a lily, but a stylized iris.

This beautiful white flower was first applied to the city’s coat of arms in the 11th century; it was white on a red background. After the bloody battle between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, which ended in 1250 with a victory for the Guelphs, they switched the colors as a sign of their power, thus creating the famous symbol of the red giglio on a white background.

In the Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri describes the eve of this event as follows: ‘The lily of the flagpole was not yet reversed and not colored red by division…’

The new arm was so important to Florence that in 1252 it graced the first Florin that was ever created.

In 1811, Napoleon tried to banish the giglio from Florence, but this led to such violent protests that he soon decided to give the Florentines their beloved symbol back.

Il Giglio Fiorentino can be found on countless places in the city. On old coats of arms on historic buildings, but also on the numerous (company) logos like that of the municipality of Florence, the Fiorentina football club and the ice cream parlor around the corner from my home.

Florence and her giglio have been inseparable for 10 centuries and that is not going to change any time soon.

https://www.intoflorence.com/history-giglio-florence/

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

FATHER ELDER MULLAN, S.J.

I.H.S.

NEW YORK

P.J. KENEDY & SONS

PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE

https://ia801306.us.archive.org/8/items/a588350800loyouoft/a588350800loyouoft.pdf

The oldest written evidence of rose cultivation comes from a tablet discussing the Akkadian king Sargon I’s military campaign to the west. Sargon brought rosebush saplings with him on the campaign so rose cultivation could begin in these newly acquired territories soon after his conquest. It was an act of supreme confidence and evidence of roses’ importance to Akkadian culture.

https://deathscent.com/2022/02/18/rosalia/

Sargon

SARGON sär’ gŏn (סַֽרְגֹ֖ון; Akkad. šarrukēn, “the king is legitimate”).

The name is found only once in the Bible (Isa 20:1) where it refers to Sargon II of Assyria (721-705 b.c.). This Sargon was the son of Tiglath-pileser III, successor to his brother Shalmaneser V, and father of Sennacherib. His reign is amply known from his inscrs. at Khorsabad and from letters and historical texts found at Nineveh and Nimrud. Although he is named only once in the OT, his campaigns are of importance for understanding the historical background of the prophecies of Isaiah.

Sargon II claimed the fall of Samaria (721 b.c.), which had been besieged by his predecessor Shalmaneser V for three years (2 Kings 17:5, 6) until his death in 722 b.c. According to Sargon’s records, he deported 27,290 people from the area of Samaria to Mesopotamia. During the first part of his reign he faced serious domestic problems which were settled only by grant of privileges to the citizens of Assur. In the following year (720 b.c.) Ilu-bihdi of Hamath led Arpad, Damascus, and Pal. into revolt. Sargon defeated this anti-Assyrian coalition near Qarqar in N Syria. In 720 b.c. the kingdom of Judah, under Ahaz, together with Philistia, Edom, and Moab, submitted to vassalage and paid tribute. In the following years, people deported from Babylonia, Hamath, and elsewhere were resettled in Samaria; these, with others brought in later, mingled with the surviving Israelite population, and their descendants years later were known as the Samaritans.

Sargon had scarcely completed the reduction of Samaria when he was greeted by a rebellion in Babylonia in 720 b.c. led by the Chaldean prince Marduk-apal-iddina (Biblical Merodach-baladan who ruled 721-711 b.c.) in Babylonia not simply as a barbarian chieftain but as a great Mesopotamian monarch who left behind traces of his building activities in various cities. Although backed by Humbanigash, king of Elam, an indecisive battle was fought at Der, between the Tigris and the Zagros, making it expedient for Sargon to leave Merodach-baladan as king in Babylonia. Thus Sargon lost control of Babylonia and did not regain it for c. twelve years.

Meanwhile, other campaigns claimed his attention. In Asia Minor, Mita (Midas), king of the Phrygian Mushki, proved a troublesome foe. A rebellion by the vassal state of Carchemish in Syria (717 b.c.) provoked Sargon to destroy that ancient center of Hitt. culture and deport its population, and subsequently to make various campaigns into Asia Minor. Sargon also turned on Urartu, already weakened by Tiglath-pileser III and now gravely threatened by the incursions of an Indo-Aryan barbarian people called the Cimmerians who were moving down from the Caucasus. Seizing the opportunity, Sargon broke the power of Urartu completely, thus removing an ancient rival—and Assyria’s strongest dike against the barbarian tide at the same time.

After 720 b.c. Sargon conducted no major campaign in Pal. This may have encouraged the restless vassals to imagine that he was a man who could be trifled with. By 713 b.c. Ashdod rebelled and other Philistine towns were drawn into the revolt and, as Sargon told it, Judah, Edom, and Moab were invited to join. That Egyp. aid had been promised is clear both from the Assyrian texts and the Bible (Isa 20). In fact, according to Isaiah 18, ambassadors of the Ethiopian king himself waited on Hezekiah, hoping to enlist his cooperation. Opinions were divided in Judah: to go or not. Isaiah was bitterly opposed, both calling on his king to give the Ethiopian envoys a negative answer, and symbolically illustrating (Isa 20) the folly of trusting in Egypt by walking about Jerusalem barefoot and clad only in a loincloth.

Sargon at this time was at the peak of power and preparing to reconquer Babylon. Ashdod, the center of revolt, was quickly taken by storm, and Judah, Moab, and Edom paid homage to the conqueror. The expected Egyp. aid failed completely to materialize and Judah was held in subjection. Later Hezekiah revolted against Sargon’s son, Sennacherib.

At the beginning of 710 b.c., Sargon was everywhere victorious. The whole of Syria-Pal. and most of the Zagros range were firmly in Assyrian hands; Urartu was dressing its wounds; the Egyptians were friendly; the Elamites and Phrygians were hostile but peaceful. Babylon, under Merodach-baladan, remained a thorn in the side of Assyria, and in 710 b.c. Sargon attacked it for the second time in his reign. It was a smashing victory, with Merodach-baladan fleeing to Elam for refuge, and the fame of Sargon continued to grow. The repeated efforts made by its enemies to undermine the Assyrian empire had been of no avail; at the end of Sargon’s reign it was larger and apparently stronger than ever.

As a war chief, Sargon liked to live in Kalḫu (Nimrud), the military capital of the empire, where he occupied, restored, and modified Ashurnasirpal’s palace. Moved by great pride, he soon decided to have his own palace in his own city. In 717 b.c. he laid the foundations of “Sargon’s fortress,” Dur-Sharrukin, a hitherto virgin site twelve m. NE of Nineveh, near the modern village of Khorsabad.

Ten years later the workmen completed a town which was square in plan, each side measuring c. one in. The palace itself stood on a sixty-ft. high platform overriding the city wall and comprised more than 200 rooms and thirty courtyards. The royal abode was richly decorated and the gates of the town were guarded by colossal bull-men. Evidence, however, indicates that the city was scarcely inhabited and almost immediately abandoned at the king’s death. One year after Dur Sharrukin was officially inaugurated, Sargon was killed (705 b.c.). His successors preferred Nineveh, and Khorsabad, deserted, fell slowly to ruins.

Bibliography Malamat, “The Historical Setting of Two Biblical Prophecies on the Nations,” IEJ, 1 (1950/51), 150ff.; G. Roux, Ancient Iraq, 257-262; H. W. F. Saggs, Iraq, 17 (1955), 146-149; H. Tadmor, “The Campaigns of Sargon II of Assyria,” JCS 12 (1958), 22-40; 77-100; W. W. Hallo, “From Qarqar to Carchemish: Assyria and Israel in the Light of New Discoveries,” BA, 23 (1960), 50-56.

https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Sargon

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