Yemeni Forces Target Al-Qaeda Hideout in Shabwa Province

Yemeni Forces Target Al-Qaeda Hideout in Shabwa Province

2025-04-13 20:47:55

Aden - Yemeni government forces launched a targeted operation against an al-Qaeda hideout in the Shabwa province today. 

The raid resulted in the arrest of a mid-level al-Qaeda commander and the death of another militant. 

This operation underscores the ongoing threat posed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which continues to exploit Yemen's prolonged conflict to bolster its activities.

The operation, however, came at a cost, with six soldiers wounded during intense clashes. Shabwa, along with neighboring Abyan province, remains a hotbed for AQAP's operations, serving as key areas for their recruitment and logistical networks.

Yemeni security forces have reaffirmed their commitment to combating terrorism and ensuring stability in the region. 

This latest action represents a broader effort to dismantle AQAP's presence and mitigate the group's influence within Yemen and beyond. 

The situation remains dynamic, as both regional and international observers monitor the outcomes of counter-terrorism measures in the war-torn country.

https://www.yemenonline.info/politics/9153

U.S. Attorney’s Office

September 10, 2014

Arvada Woman Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization

DENVER—Shannon Conley, age 19, of Arvada, Colorado, pled guilty this morning before U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, U.S. Attorney John Walsh and FBI Denver Division Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle announced. Conley will be sentenced by Judge Moore on January 23, 2015 at 1:30 p.m. The defendant appeared at the change of plea hearing in custody, and was remanded at its conclusion.

According to court documents, including the stipulated facts in the plea agreement, from about sometime in February 2014 and continuing through April 8, 2014, Conley and a co-conspirator did unlawfully work together and with other individuals known and unknown to commit an offense against the United States, specifically to provide and attempt to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, specifically Al-Qaeda (AQ) and its affiliates, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a/k/a the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), a/k/a the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS), a/k/a the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The conspiracy was accomplished, in part, when Conley met the co-conspirator on the Internet. During their communications, they shared their view of Islam as requiring participation in violent jihad. The co-conspirator communicated to Conley that he was an active member of an Al-Qaeda (AQ) affiliate fighting in Syria known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS). The two then decided to become engaged; and, together they worked to have Conley travel to Syria to join her new fiancé. Before traveling to Syria, Conley refined and obtained additional training and skills in order to provide support and assistance to any AQ and/or ISIS fighter. Conley also intended to fight if it became necessary to do so.

In furtherance of the conspiracy, Conley joined the U.S. Army Explorers (USAE) to be trained in U.S. military tactics and in firearms. She traveled to Texas and attended the USAE training. She also obtained first aid/nursing certification and National Rifle Association certification. Conley knew that ISIS was a designated foreign terrorist organization. In fact, on numerous occasions, Special Agents with the FBI met with her in extraordinary attempts to persuade her not to carry out her plans to travel overseas to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization and to engage in violent jihad. On March 29, 2014, the co-conspirator, together with others, arranged for an airline ticket to be purchased for Conley to travel to Turkey, departing from Denver on April 8, 2014. On April 8, 2014, Conley traveled to Denver International Airport and attempted to board the flight to Turkey. She was then arrested by FBI agents.

A subsequent search of Conley’s home revealed DVDs of Anwar Al-Awlaki lectures and a number of books and articles about Al-Qaeda, its affiliate groups, and jihad. Agents also recovered shooting targets labeled with the number of rounds fired and distances.

Conley faces not more than five years in federal prison, and up to a $250,000 fine for conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Arvada Police Department.

The defendant is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Holloway, with the assistance of Jennifer Levy of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/denver/news/press-releases/arvada-woman-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-to-provide-material-support-to-a-designated-foreign-terrorist-organization

Page 1 of 1

Shelton James M Civ OO-ALC/CCD

From: Dunn Susan L Civ 309 EMXG/QPQC Thursday, May 11, 2006 11:15 AM

Sent:

To:

Shelton James M Clv OO-ALC/CCD Subject: Consideration for another remedy.

Mr. Shelton;

I've thought about the compensatory damages, I have done some research on the EEOC web and have read some law articles.

That doesn't make me an expert by a long shot, but considering that my heart problems and blood pressure has soared since

I was reassigned to this area, due to an overt hostile environment intentionally created on purpose by my management, and

I have had to have surgery and had quite a lot of tests run and the cost of the medications, with this in mind, I would request

that 200 hours of sick leave be restored to me, and $5,000 to $10,000 in damages for pain and suffering from the mental

anguish.

I heard your message this morning, and it took me awhile this morning to respond as I was pondering

this notion.

So an afternoon appointment like 1,2, 3 p.m. today would be ok with me to sign the paperwork again. Thank you for your messages this morning.

Susan Dunn

309 EMXG/QPQC Program Management Spee. USI/UCI/LSET/SAV/ Action Plans DSN. 777-6490 Com. 801-777-6490

5/11/2006

0019

[666] 6. 1On the side of the superior general, what will aid toward this union of hearts are the qualities of his person [G], to be treated in Part IX [723-25], with which he will perform his office, 2which is to be for all the members a head from which the influence required for the end sought by the Society ought to descend to them all. 3It is thus from the general as head that all authority of the provincials should flow, from the provincials that of the local superiors, and from the local superiors that of the individual members. 4And from this same head, or at least by his commission and approval, should likewise come the appointing of missions. And the same should apply to communicating the graces of the Society. 5For the more the subjects are dependent upon their superiors, the better will the love, obedience, and union among them be preserved."

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their 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

The union of minds and hearts: with respect to: performing the task of the head on behalf of the entire Society [666]; governing subjects well [667-69]; exempting Ours from obedience [663]; preparing for, summoning, and directing congregations [681, 682, 686, 689, 690, 691, 712, 716, 718, 755], 332. See also Formulas of congregations " page 512

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

Head:

1. See Illness, mental

2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"

page 416

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

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.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Revelation 13:18 Or is humanity’s number

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

AI Overview

Learn more

False piety, or sham holiness, refers to the outward display of religious devotion or piety while lacking genuine sincerity or moral integrity, often used to gain status or control over others. 

Here's a more detailed explanation:

Key Characteristics of False Piety:

Outward Show, Inward Hypocrisy:

False piety is characterized by a focus on religious rituals, rules, and appearances rather than genuine spiritual transformation or moral actions. 

Control and Manipulation:

Those exhibiting false piety may use their religious facade to control or manipulate others, often under the guise of spiritual authority or guidance. 

Self-Righteousness:

False piety often involves a sense of superiority and a belief that one is more righteous or closer to God than others. 

Criticism and Judgment:

Those engaging in false piety may be quick to criticize and judge others for their perceived lack of piety or adherence to religious rules. 

Conformity and Exclusivity:

False piety often emphasizes conformity to a specific group or religious tradition, creating an "us vs. them" mentality. 

Minimalism:

False piety can also manifest as a minimal commitment to religious practices, where individuals perform the bare minimum while lacking genuine spiritual fervor. 

Examples in the Bible:

The Pharisees:

Jesus frequently criticized the Pharisees, who were known for their outward displays of piety while neglecting compassion and justice. 

Isaiah 58:

The prophet Isaiah rebukes the people of Israel for their false piety, emphasizing that God desires acts of justice and compassion over mere outward rituals. 

2 Timothy 3:5:

This verse warns against those who "hold to a form of godliness" but deny its power. 

In other contexts:

Hinduism:

The concept of "Vow of the duck" in Hinduism symbolizes hypocritical behavior and false piety. 

Sufism:

Early Sufis condemned ascetic practices as unnecessary public displays of false piety. 

Taqiyya:

In Shia Islam, taqiyya is the practice of dissimulation and secrecy of religious belief and practice, which can be seen as a form of false piety in certain contexts. 

Avoiding False Piety:

Focus on genuine spiritual transformation:

Strive for inner transformation and moral integrity rather than outward displays of piety. 

Practice compassion and justice:

Actively seek to help others and work for justice, rather than focusing solely on religious rituals. 

Avoid self-righteousness:

Be humble and recognize your own shortcomings, rather than judging others. 

Seek genuine spiritual growth:

Engage in practices that foster spiritual growth, such as prayer, meditation, and study of scripture. 

Generative AI is experimental.

The sibyls[n 1] were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece.[1][2]

Statue in the Temple of Zeus at Aizanoi, believed to depict a sibyl.

The sibyls prophesied at holy sites.[3] A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by Pausanias[4] when he described local traditions in his writings from the second century AD. At first, there appears to have been only a single sibyl. By the fourth century BC, there appear to have been at least three more, Phrygian, Erythraean, and Hellespontine. By the first century BC, there were at least ten sibyls, located in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor.

History

Michelangelo's Delphic Sibyl, Sistine Chapel ceiling

The English word sibyl (/ˈsɪbəl/) is from Middle English, via the Old French sibile and the Latin sibylla from the ancient Greek Σίβυλλα (Sibylla).[5] Varro derived the name from an Aeolic sioboulla, the equivalent of Attic theobule ("divine counsel").[6] This etymology is not accepted in modern handbooks, which list the origin as unknown.[7] There have been alternative proposals in nineteenth-century philology suggesting Old Italic[8][failed verification] or Semitic derivation.[9]

The first known Greek writer to mention a sibyl is (based on the testimony of Plutarch) Heraclitus (fl. 500 BC):

The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.[10]

Walter Burkert observes that "frenzied women from whose lips the god speaks" are recorded very much earlier in the Near East, as in Mari in the second millennium and in Assyria in the first millennium".[11]

Until the literary elaborations of Roman writers, sibyls were not identified by a personal name, but by names that refer to the location of their temenos, or shrine.

In Pausanias, Description of Greece, the first sibyl at Delphi mentioned ("the former" [earlier]) was of great antiquity, and was thought, according to Pausanias, to have been given the name "sibyl" by the Libyans.[12] Sir James Frazer calls the text defective.

The second sibyl referred to by Pausanias, and named "Herophile", seems to have been based ultimately in Samos, but visited other shrines, at Clarus, Delos, and Delphi and sang there, but that at the same time, Delphi had its own sibyl.[12]

James Frazer writes, in his translation and commentary on Pausanias,[13] that only two of the Greek sibyls were historical: Herophile of Erythrae, who is thought to have lived in the eighth century BC, and Phyto of Samos who lived somewhat later. He observes that the Greeks at first seemed to have known only one sibyl, and instances Heraclides Ponticus[14] as the first ancient writer to distinguish several sibyls: Heraclides names at least three sibyls, the Phrygian, the Erythraean, and the Hellespontine.[15] The scholar David S. Potter writes, "In the late fifth century BC it does appear that 'Sibylla' was the name given to a single inspired prophetess".[16]

Like Heraclitus, Plato speaks of only one sibyl, but in course of time the number increased to nine, with a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, probably Etruscan in origin, added by the Romans. According to Lactantius' Divine Institutions (Book 1, Ch. 6), Varro (first century BC) lists these ten: the Persian, the Libyan, the Delphic, the Cimmerian, the Erythræan, the Samian, the Cumæan, the Hellespontine (in Trojan territory), the Phrygian (at Ancyra), and the Tiburtine (named Albunea).

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

When Attalus, the Pontiff and King of Pergamos, died in 133BC, he bequested the Headship of the "Babylonian Priesthood" to Rome. William B. Barker in his book "Lares and Penates cracks open the codeword Pergamos as used by St. John in Revelation 2:13. He writes: "The Chaldean Magi enjoyed a long period of prosperity at Babylon. A pontiff appointed by the sovereign ruled over a college of seventy-two hierophants.... [just as the popes have 70 Cardinals] the defeated Chaldeans fled to Asia Minor, and fixed their central college at Pergamos, and too the Palladium of Babylon, the CUBIC stone [believed to represent Cybele or Kybele, the mother goddess] with them. Here, independent of state control, they carried on the rites of their religion, and plotted against the peace of the Persian Empire, caballing with the Greeks for that purpose."

Thus we see that the Chaldeans continued to wield political and religious influence, injecting thier presence into the next world empire. When the city was later given to Rome (Rome acquired the city of Pergamos by decree of Attalus III, bequething his kingdom to the Roman Caesar), the priesthood of Pergamos moved to the new power center on the Italian peninsula."

page 504-505

"Kingdom of God or Masterpiece of Satan?-The Secret Doctrine"

Codeword Barbelon book One

by P.D. Stuart

$500 million Perelman Arts Center opens at World Trade Center site

BY DAVE CARLIN

UPDATED ON: SEPTEMBER 13, 2023 / 6:43 PM / CBS NEW YORK

NEW YORK -- There's a new beacon of light for Lower Manhattan. Added to the World Trade Center site is a $500 million center for performance and creative expression.

CBS New York's Dave Carlin was at the grand opening of Perelman Arts Center (PAC NYC).

The giant cube is dazzling and drawing crowds to a shapeshifting arts space.

The grand opening had VIPs, song and dance. Tony Award winner Gavin Creel was joined by ballet students from the Joffrey School.

The chairman of the board for Perelman Arts Center is former mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"Today, we inaugurate the last major piece of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site," he said.

The center at 251 Fulton St. is the work of REX architecture firm.

"In the core of the building, the heart of the building, are these really dynamic theaters. There's three, and they are extremely reconfigurable," REX founding principal Joshua Ramos said.

The interior space is by the Rockwell Group.

"The combination of elements -- the memorial, the museum. In the performing arts center, you have to come up the stairs, and you're entering a place that's about creativity and art and possibilities," David Rockwell said.

"We need places like this to give us that sense of hope again," Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

"It renews our spirit," Mayor Eric Adams said.

There is a dazzling difference between day and night -- the thin marble panels and a glowing from within this place full of life.

"Being part of the World Trade Center site is so important to our mission," PAC NYC Executive Director Khady Kamara said. "You can walk in anytime we're open."

"We're going to have Marcus Samuelsson's restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We're going to have free performances on the lobby stage. So I do think just a place to come and hang out," PAC NYC Artistic Director Bill Rausch said.

The theaters are buzzing with activity, setting the stages for the start of performances Sept. 19."

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/perelman-arts-center-world-trade-center/

"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core." Jude 1:11

Note 281.—"CUBE. The cube is a symbol of truth, of wisdom, of moral perfection The New Jerusalem promised by the Apocalypse is equal in length, breadth, and height,"—Mackey's Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Freemasonry, Article Cube."

Twenty-Fourth Degree; or Prince of the Tabernacle.

INITIATION.

Scotch Rite Masonry Illustrated Volume 2 -The complete Ritual of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite profusely illustrated 1905.pdf - Google Drive

CAABA or KAABA

Arabic word Ka'abah for CUBIC building. The square building or temple in Mecca. More especially the small cubical oratory. within, held in adoration by the Mohammedans, as containing the black stone said to have been given by an angel to Abraham. The inner as well as the outer structure receives its name from Ka'ab, meaning cube (see Allah)."

Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (phoenixmasonry.org)

Since Fulcanelli informs us that the argotique of the green language is based on a cabalistic pattern of meaning, it should be obvious that this pattern is the Tree of Life of his fellow adepts. That it is not obvious is the result of misdirection, conscious or unconscious, on the part of Fulcanelli’s student, Eugène Canseliet. In the “Preface to the Second Edition” of Mystery of the Cathedrals, Canseliet, while displaying his knowledge of the importance of stellar imagery in his master’s work, ends with a major piece of misinformation. He states that the justification for the republication of the book lies in the fact “that this book has restored to light the phonetic cabala, whose principles and applications had been completely lost.” While this is somewhat true, Canseliet goes on to conclude that after his and Fulcanelli’s work, “this mother tongue need never be confused with the Jewish Kabbalah.”24 He continues by asserting that “the Jewish Kabbalah is full of transpositions, inversions, substitutions and calculations, as arbitrary as they are abstruse.” Again this is true for many explications of the kabbalistic mystery, but it does not address the issue of the universality of the Tree of Life itself. Canseliet further muddies the water by suggesting that cabala and Kabbalah are derived from different roots. Cabala, he declares, is derived from the Latin caballus, or “horse,” while Kabbalah is derived from the Hebrew word for tradition. On the surface, this is indeed correct, but Canseliet is skillfully avoiding the deeper meanings of both these words, which leads us ultimately to their common root—kaba, the stone. Fulcanelli never voiced such opinions in the body of the book. In Mystery of the Cathedrals, he obliquely refers to the cabala as the “language of the gods” and scorns the “would-be cabalists . . . whether they be Jewish or Christian,” and “the would-be experts, whose illusory combinations lead to nothing concrete.”25 He goes on to say: “Let us leave these doctors of the Kabbalah to their ignorance,” implying those who claimed to be authorities on the Hebrew Kabbalah. He says nothing against the Kabbalah itself but merely notes that it is misunderstood by almost everyone. By implication, Fulcanelli is also saying that he does understand it properly. As we saw in chapter 2, “Isis the Prophetess” points to a Tree of Life motif for its source of wisdom. The Hebrew spelling of Amnael’s name gives us a clue to its nature. Using Hebrew gematria, the letters in the name add up to 123, the number of the three-part name of God, AHH YHVH ELOHIM, associated with the top three sefirot on the Tree of Life, Kether, Chokmah, and Binah (see fig. 2.9). As noted already, if we break the name into Amn and ael, we get the numbers 91 and 32. These are both references to the Tree of Life, 32 being the total number of paths and sefirot and 91 being the number of the Hebrew word amen, AMN, and the word for “tree,” AYLN. Stirling, in his rediscovery of the ancient canon, concludes that the Tree of Life is the pattern that underlies the secret language of symbolism, which is the language expressed by the liberal arts that accompany Alchemy/Philosophy on the base of the middle pillar of the Porch of Judgment. Fulcanelli himself points to the Tree of Life as the key secret in his description of the dragon’s plinth, going so far as to paraphrase the Sefer Yetzirah. Therefore, why should we, on the basis of Canseliet’s prejudice, associate anything else with Fulcanelli’s kabbalistic image pattern? Fulcanelli also instructs us that language is a reflection of the universal Idea, a clear reference to the Word/World Tree. The kabbalistic origins of the art of light, Fulcanelli reminds us, are but a reflection of the divine light. Fulcanelli is not only making use of this kabbalistic Tree of Life pattern, but he is a master of its symbolic subtleties as well. As he unfolds his array of images and concepts, we see the guiding matrix of the ancient Word, the verbum dismissum or lost word of Western esotericism, revealed as the divine World/Word Tree."

The Mysteries of The Great Cross of Hendaye

Alchemy and The End of Time

Jay Weidner and Vincent Bridges

https://dn790009.ca.archive.org/0/items/the-mysteries-of-the-great-cros-jay-weidner/The%20Mysteries%20of%20the%20Great%20Cros%20-%20Jay%20Weidner.pdf

THE "ZIG-ZAG Man" of rolling papers fame is based on the story of a French North African soldier (Zouave) whose smoking pipe was shattered by a stray bullet during the battle of Sevastopol so he rolled his tobacco using a piece of paper torn from a musket cartridge.

https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/9oojd9/til_zigzag_man_of_rolling_papers_fame_is_based_on/?rdt=47114

Thomas Trace Beatie (born 1974[1]) is an American public speaker, author, and advocate of transgender rights and sexuality issues, with a focus on transgender fertility and reproductive rights.[2]

Beatie came out as a trans man in early 1997. Beatie had gender-affirming surgery in March 2002 and became known as "the pregnant man" after he became pregnant through artificial insemination in 2007.[3] Beatie chose to be pregnant, with donated sperm,[4][5] because his wife Nancy was sterile.

The couple filed for divorce in 2012. The Beatie case is the first of its kind on record, where a documented legal male gave birth within a marriage to a woman, and for the first time, a court challenged a marriage where the husband gave birth.

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

Tracing boards are painted or printed illustrations depicting the various emblems and symbols of Freemasonry. They can be used as teaching aids during the lectures that follow each of the Masonic Degrees, when an experienced member explains the various concepts of Freemasonry to new members. They can also be used by experienced members as reminders of the concepts they learned as they went through the ceremonies of the different masonic degrees.[1]

History and development

Floor and table designs

In the eighteenth century Masonic lodges met chiefly in private rooms above taverns, and the symbolic designs used in catechesis were chalked on the table or floor in the centre of the hired room, usually by the Tyler or the Worshipful Master.[2] Evidence suggests that a simple boundary was drawn (usually a square or rectangle, or sometimes a cross) within which various Masonic symbols were added, often of a geometric type (such as a circle or pentagram). In many lodges the boundary shape may have been drawn by the Tyler, with the Master adding the symbolic detail. Later various symbolic objects were incorporated, examples including a ladder, a beehive, and an hourglass, and sometimes drawings were interchangeable with physical objects.[3] At the end of the work a new member was often required to erase the drawing with a mop, as a practical demonstration of his obligation of secrecy.

Though the various Grand Lodges were then generally hostile to the creation of any physical representations of the ritual and symbols of the Craft, the time-consuming business of redrawing the symbols at every meeting was gradually replaced by keeping a removable "floor cloth" on which the various symbols were painted. Different portions might be exposed according to the work being executed.[4] By the second half of the eighteenth century the Masonic symbols were being painted on a variety of removable materials ranging from small marble slabs to canvas, to give a more decorative and elaborate symbolic display.

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

Exoteric Masonry, which is only the husks of the Mystic Order formed by the Sons of Cain has in modern times attracted the masculine element with its positively polarized physical vehicles, and educated them in industry and statecraft, thus controlling the material development of the world. The sons of Seth, constituting themselves the Priestcraft have worked their spell over the positive vital bodies of the feminine element to dominate the spiritual development. And whereas, the sons of Cain working through Freemasonry and kindred movements, have openly fought for the temporal power, the Priestcraft has fought as strenuously and perhaps more effectively, by stealth, to retain their monopoly upon the spiritual development of the feminine element. To the casual onlooker it would seem as if there were no decided antagonism between these two movements at the present time, but though Freemasonry of today is but a shell of its true ancient mystic self, and though Catholicism has been terribly tarnished by the touch of time, in that one thing there is no difference, the war is as keen as ever, the efforts of the Church are not concentrated upon the masses however as much as upon those who are seeking to live the higher life, so that they may gain admission to the Mystery Temple and learn how to make the Philosophers’ Stone. As mankind advances in evolution, the vital body becomes more permanently positively polarized giving to both sexes a greater desire for spirituality, and though we change from the masculine to feminine in alternate embodiment, positive polarity of the vital body is becoming more pronounced regardless of sex, and this accounts for the growing tendency towards Altruism which is even being brought out by the suffering entailed by the great war we are now fighting, for all agree that they are seeking to obtain a lasting peace where the swords may be made into plowshares, and the spears into pruning hooks. In the past humanity has been claiming universal brotherhood as a great ideal, but we must come closer than that to be in full accord with the Christ. He said to his Disciples “ye are my friends.” Among brothers and sisters hate and enmity may exist, but friendship is the expression of love and cannot exist apart from that. This is therefore the magic word which will eventually level all distinctions, bring peace upon earth and goodwill among men. This is the great Ideal proclaimed by the Rosicrucian Fellowship, an Ideal which points the shortest way to the New Heaven and the New Earth, where the sons of Cain and the sons of Seth will eventually be united.

FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM

by MAX HEINDEL

https://dn720206.ca.archive.org/0/items/freemasonryandca017137mbp/freemasonryandca017137mbp.pdf

FBI Attempts to Hold Sibel Edmonds' Book Hostage

Published on April 10, 2012

FBI Attempts to Hold Sibel Edmonds’ Book Hostage

Agency Used Contracts to Censor Whistleblowers

Washington, D.C. April 10, 2012. Today, the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) revealed that the FBI required employees to sign employment contracts that are illegal under Federal law. The NWC launched the investigation in response to a nearly year long campaign by the FBI to prevent the publication of whistleblower Sibel Edmonds’ new book, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story.

On April 26, 2011, Ms. Edmonds followed official procedure and submitted her manuscript to the FBI for pre-publication clearance. Under the terms of her employment agreement and controlling regulations, the FBI was required to review and approve the submission within thirty (30) days. Instead of complying with the law, the FBI intentionally stalled the approval process for over 341 days and has still refused to “clear” the book for publication.

Ms. Edmonds will speak today for the first time about the FBI’s attempts to suppress her book. The interview will be aired live at 1:30pm ET on Honesty Without Fear, and the podcast will also be available for download.

The NWC is also releasing documentation confirming that the FBI required employees, including Ms. Edmonds, to sign the illegal contracts that allowed the FBI to censor issues of “public policy” it found embarrassing. According to Ms. Edmonds attorney, Stephen M. Kohn, “the controlling law strictly limits government’s ability to censor its employees. Agencies like the FBI may require pre-publication review of its employees’ writings, but may only censor classified or secret information. The government may not censor books or other writings on ‘policy’ grounds. The FBI’s employment contract with Ms. Edmonds is overreaching and illegal.”

Additional documents (linked below) demonstrate that the agency acted illegally to prevent Ms. Edmonds from publishing a manuscript that might embarrass the agency.

The book in question, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story, discusses Ms. Edmonds’s experience as an FBI Language Specialist who discovered and blew the whistle on serious security breaches and cover-ups at the Washington Field Office. The FBI fired Ms. Edmonds for making protected disclosures about the misconduct she observed and later invoked the “state’s secret” privilege to suppress her story.

An independent investigation by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General confirmed her allegations and the illegality of her termination. However, the Bush administration invoked the state secrets privilege in 2002 in order to have Ms. Edmonds’ whistleblower claims dismissed and to protect the government from embarrassment.In recognition of her work to expose intelligence failures, Ms. Edmonds received the 2006 First Amendment Award, presented by the PEN American Center and Newman’s Own.

Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center, also stated:

The FBI must stop harassing Sibel Edmonds. The law is crystal clear on the government’s ability to censor federal employees and contractors. When reviewing their writings, the government has the single ability to strike classified or secret information. The government may not censor a book based on “policy.” Here, the FBI has invented new powers for itself, violating the Constitution. Congress should investigate all employment agreements drafted by the FBI to ensure that they are legal and not designed to censor speech protected under the First Amendment.

https://www.whistleblowers.org/news/fbi-attempts-to-hold-sibel-edmonds-book-hostage/

Books: 1. In general: the extent to which they are to be allowed for the private use of Ours [372, 373]; specifically, in the colleges of Ours [372]. See also Library; Publishing books and other scholarly works 2. Administrative: in which are to be recorded: possessions brought by novices and certain of their declarations [57, 200]; the names of those who pronounce vows [530, 545] 3. To be read in the schools: see Authors 4. The writing thereof: see Writing of books;Writers 5. Publication thereof: see Publishing books and other scholarly works

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

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“Index of Forbidden Books”) was established by the Roman Catholic Church in 1559 in an attempt to combat the spread of some of the writings of the Protestant Reformation. The first printed Index included a prohibition against the “Bible in Castilian Romance or any other vulgar tongue,” a ban that remained in force until the 18th century. Many books deemed heretical or threatening to the faith were destroyed or hidden as a result of the Index and the inquisitions, and hundreds of printers took flight to Switzerland and Germany.

Some of the outcome, and much of the enforcement, of the Council of Trent was in the hands of newly established religious orders, above all the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, founded in 1534 by St. Ignatius of Loyola and officially established by the papacy in 1540. Unlike the Benedictine monks or the Franciscan and Dominican friars, the Jesuits swore special obedience to the pope and were specifically dedicated to the task of reconstructing church life and teaching in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation. They thus came to be called the “shock troops of the Counter-Reformation.”

Education was foremost in the minds of many of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation, Jesuit or otherwise, and seminaries multiplied to prepare the clergy for a more austere life in the service of the church. There was a flowering of utopian ideas; writings such as La città del sole (“The City of the Sun”) by Tommaso Campanella and La repubblica immaginaria (“The Imaginary Republic”) by Lodovico Agostini are examples of this new vision of the church and of the duties of Christians. Although the Jesuits were not specifically a teaching order, they were nevertheless very important in this field and became especially active in scholarship and education. The first Jesuit college was opened in Messina, Sicily, in 1548. By 1615 the Jesuits had 372 colleges, and by 1755—just 18 years before the suppression of the order—the number had risen to 728. (The society was not reestablished until 1814.) The Jesuits were also involved in the education of the nobility, and through their pupils they sometimes wielded as great an influence in affairs of state as they did in affairs of the church.

Another major emphasis of the Counter-Reformation was an ongoing missionary endeavour in parts of the world that had been colonized by predominantly Roman Catholic countries, such as Spain and Portugal. Although the Jesuits were by no means the only religious order in the foreign missions of the church, their responsibility for regaining outside Europe the power and territory that the church had lost within Europe as a result of the Protestant Reformation made them the leading force in the Christianization of newly discovered lands. The work of such men as St. Francis Xavier and others in Asia and of missionaries in the New World was rewarded with millions of baptisms, if not true conversions.

There were also attempts to reconvert areas of the world that had once been Roman Catholic—e.g., England and Sweden. Most of the “German lands” in which Luther had worked remained Protestant after his death in 1546, but major territories, above all Bavaria and Austria, were regained for Roman Catholicism by the end of the 16th century. The Wars of Religion between 1562 and 1598 regained France for the Roman Catholic cause, though the Edict of Nantes (1598) granted a limited toleration to the Protestants; it was revoked in 1685. Perhaps the most complete victory for the Counter-Reformation was the restoration of Roman Catholic domination in Poland and in Hussite Bohemia. In Italy, Spain, and the southern Netherlands (the future Belgium), Protestant influence was also largely destroyed."

https://www.britannica.com/event/Counter-Reformation/Inquisition

At least some deities received daily offerings of bread or flour, as attested in Hattusa and Nuzi.[62] One well known type of Hurrian offerings was keldi, translated as "peace offering"[137] or "goodwill offering."[138] It is also assumed that many monthly or seasonal festivals were observed by Hurrians, but very few of them are well documented, one exception being the hišuwa festival from Kizzuwatna, possibly originally celebrated in Syria.[62] It was meant to guarantee good fortune for the royal couple.[139] Deities who received offering during it included "Teššub Manuzi," Lelluri, Allani, Išḫara, two manifestations of Nupatik (pibithi - "of Pibid(a)" and zalmathi - "of Zalman(a)/Zalmat") and the Anatolian goddess Maliya.[139] Another Kizzuwatnean festival, which was dedicated to Išḫara, took place in autumn.[140]

A Hurrian ritual calendar is attested in documents from Nuzi.[141] In the earliest sources from the third millennium BCE, when the city was known as Gasur, the local calendar was similar to these from Ebla, Mari, Abu Salabikh and Eshnunna, and the month names used at the time originate in Semitic languages.[142] However, after Hurrians settled in the city, they started to use one of their own, which in some cases could be combined with the old calendar, as evidenced by a document combining month names from both into a sequence.[141] The Hurrian month names in Nuzi were Impurtanni, Arkuzzi, Kurilli, Šeḫali ša dIM (the logogram stands for the name of the god Teššub, while šeḫali might mean "festival"), Šeḫali ša Nergal, Attanašwe, Šeḫlu (followed by a month whose name is not preserved), Ḫuru, Mitirunni (mitirunnu was a festival involving a parade of divine statues) and Ḫutalši.[143] Only the names of a few of the etymologically non-Hurrian months are preserved: Ḫiaru (second; the name refers to a festival also known from northern and western Mesopotamia), Ḫinzuru (third), Tamūzu (fourth), Ulūlu (sixth), Sabūtu (seventh, as indicated by the name), Kinūnu (ninth; the name refers to a festival focused on a ritual brazier), Ḫegalla, Qarrāti and Ḫamannu (position in the calendar unknown).[144] Some Hurrian month names, including a possible cognate of Attanašwe, Atanatim, are also known from Alalakh.[145]

It is possible that Attanašwe, "month of the fathers," was connected to the cult of deceased ancestors, which is well documented in Nuzi.[34] Families apparently owned figurines representing their spirits.[34] In the west, references to "gods of the fathers," enna attanewena, can be found,[146] but it is not clear if they refer to similar customs,[34] and it is possible this term instead referred to nebulously defined ancestors of deities.[147] Funerary rites and other burial practices are poorly represented in known sources.[148] It possible that the term karašk-, known from one of Tushratta's letters to the Egyptian pharaoh referred to a type of mausoleum meant to honor a deceased relative.[148] A single text from Ugarit alludes to the dead being led to their destination by Nupatik, seemingly acting as a psychopomp in this case.[149]

Ritual texts are commonly accompanied by instructions pertaining to music which was supposed to be performed during celebrations, both choral and instrumental.[150] While some contain what is most likely the oldest instance of written musical notation, its decipherment is difficult.[151] One well known example of such a Hurrian hymn comes from Ugarit and is dedicated to Nikkal.[152] A genre of Hurrian songs whose name, zinzabuššiya, is derived from that of an unidentified bird, was associated with the worship of Šauška according to Hittite documents.[96]

Divination is well attested as an element of Hurrian religious practice.[153] Its most commonly employed method combined an inquiry aimed at a specific deity with extispicy, the examination of an animal's entrails.[64] Hepatoscopy, or examination of the liver, is mentioned particularly often.[154] A similar practice is known from Mesopotamia, where the examination of a sheep's liver was commonly understood as a way to gain answers to questions directed as the gods Shamash and Adad.[64] A method of divination involving a specific type of bird, the mušen hurri (Akkadian: "the cave bird" or perhaps "the Hurrian bird," possibly a shelduck or rock partridge) is also known, but it remains uncertain what this procedure entailed.[154]

Hurrian incantations are also well known, though they are often difficult to interpret, and many known examples are unprovenanced.[155] They were imported into Mari and Babylonia as early as in the Old Babylonian period.[155] A well-preserved corpus of such texts is also known from Hattusa.[155] Kizzuwatna was most likely the source of many incantations and other similar formulas.[155] Two examples are the itkalzi ("mouth-washing"[156]) and itkahi series of purification rituals.[155] It has been argued that the former most likely reflect a Mitanni tradition.[157]

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

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Muhammed Fethullah Gülen (27 April 1941 – 20 October 2024) was a Turkish Muslim scholar, preacher, and leader of the Gülen movement[8][9] who as of 2016 had millions of followers.[10] Gülen was an influential neo-Ottomanist,[11] Anatolian panethnicist,[clarification needed][12][13] Islamic poet, writer,[14] social critic, and activist–dissident developing a Nursian theological perspective[15] that embraces democratic modernity.[13] Gülen was a local state imam from 1959 to 1981[16][17] and he was a citizen of Turkey until his denaturalization by the Turkish government in 2017.[18] Over the years, Gülen became a centrist political figure in Turkey prior to his being there as a fugitive. From 21 March 1999 until his death on 20 October 2024, Gülen lived in self-exile in the United States near Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.[19][20][21]

Gülen said his social criticisms are focused upon individuals' faith and morality and a lesser extent toward political ends,[22] and self described as rejecting an Islamist political philosophy, advocating instead for full participation within professions, society, and political life by religious and secular individuals who profess high moral or ethical principles and who wholly support secular rule, within Muslim-majority countries and elsewhere.[23] Gülen was described in the English-language media as an imam "who promoted a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work, and education" and as "one of the world's most important Muslim figures".[24][25]

In 2003, a number of Gülen movement participants allied with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's right wing Justice and Development Party (AKP), providing the AKP political and sorely-needed administrative support.[26][27][28] This political alliance worked together to weaken left-of-center Kemalist factions, but fractured in 2011. Turkish prosecutors accused Gülen of attempts to overthrow the government by allegedly directing politically motivated corruption investigations by Gülen-linked investigators then in the judiciary,[29][30] who illegally wiretapped the executive office of the Turkish president,[9] and Gülen's alleged instigations of the 2016 coup attempt.[31][32] Gülen denied the accusations.[33][34]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fethullah_G%C3%BClen

Page 1 of 1

Shelton James M Civ OO-ALC/CCD

From: Dunn Susan L Civ 309 EMXG/QPQC Thursday, May 11, 2006 11:15 AM

Sent:

To:

Shelton James M Clv OO-ALC/CCD Subject: Consideration for another remedy.

Mr. Shelton;

I've thought about the compensatory damages, I have done some research on the EEOC web and have read some law articles.

That doesn't make me an expert by a long shot, but considering that my heart problems and blood pressure has soared since

I was reassigned to this area, due to an overt hostile environment intentionally created on purpose by my management, and

I have had to have surgery and had quite a lot of tests run and the cost of the medications, with this in mind, I would request

that 200 hours of sick leave be restored to me, and $5,000 to $10,000 in damages for pain and suffering from the mental

anguish.

I heard your message this morning, and it took me awhile this morning to respond as I was pondering

this notion.

So an afternoon appointment like 1,2, 3 p.m. today would be ok with me to sign the paperwork again. Thank you for your messages this morning.

Susan Dunn

309 EMXG/QPQC Program Management Spee. USI/UCI/LSET/SAV/ Action Plans DSN. 777-6490 Com. 801-777-6490

5/11/2006

0019

[666] 6. 1On the side of the superior general, what will aid toward this union of hearts are the qualities of his person [G], to be treated in Part IX [723-25], with which he will perform his office, 2which is to be for all the members a head from which the influence required for the end sought by the Society ought to descend to them all. 3It is thus from the general as head that all authority of the provincials should flow, from the provincials that of the local superiors, and from the local superiors that of the individual members. 4And from this same head, or at least by his commission and approval, should likewise come the appointing of missions. And the same should apply to communicating the graces of the Society. 5For the more the subjects are dependent upon their superiors, the better will the love, obedience, and union among them be preserved."

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their 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

The union of minds and hearts: with respect to: performing the task of the head on behalf of the entire Society [666]; governing subjects well [667-69]; exempting Ours from obedience [663]; preparing for, summoning, and directing congregations [681, 682, 686, 689, 690, 691, 712, 716, 718, 755], 332. See also Formulas of congregations " page 512

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

Head:

1. See Illness, mental

2. The superior general, head of the Society [666]"

page 416

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

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.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Revelation 13:18 Or is humanity’s number

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

Published February 11, 2014

Washington Was Originally Named Rome, Maryland

Discover the unique history of Rome in Maryland and its influence on Washington D.C., from Francis Pope's estate to Tiber Creek's origins.

Washington’s Hidden Roman Legacy

Nestled in Washington D.C.‘s history is a surprising connection to a little-known place: Rome, in Maryland. This discovery offers a unique glimpse into America’s past.

Rome in America: A 17th Century Vision

In the 17th century, a vast estate of 400 acres existed southeast of what is now Georgetown, in Maryland. Owned by an Italian culture enthusiast, this land was ambitiously named Rome. The owner’s passion for Italy didn’t just influence the name; it shaped his vision for the New World. This estate was more than land; it was a symbol of aspiration and connection to ancient civilizations.

Transitioning from European inspiration to American reality, the landowner renamed Goose Creek to Tiber Creek. This act mirrored Rome’s iconic River Tiber, creating a symbolic link across continents. His vision was to merge the grandeur of ancient Rome with the budding potential of America.

Francis Pope: The Mastermind Behind Rome, Maryland

The visionary behind this American Rome was Francis Pope, who acquired the land on June 5th, 1663. His story, detailed in an October 7th, 1883 Washington Post article, reflects a blend of ambition and whimsy. Pope took pride in his estate, often boasting about his Rome on the Tiber. His unique naming scheme wasn’t just a personal quirk; it was a statement of cultural identity and historical awareness.

Francis Pope’s legacy extends beyond mere land ownership. He imbued his estate with a sense of historical and cultural significance. His choice to name the creek Tiber was a deliberate effort to echo the greatness of ancient Rome in the new American landscape.

A Modern Twist: The Coincidence of Pope Francis

Adding to the narrative’s richness is the modern coincidence of Pope Francis, the first American pope, sharing a name with Francis Pope. This unexpected twist in the story connects the historical and contemporary worlds. It adds a layer of irony and depth, bridging centuries of history through a shared name.

This coincidence is more than just a curious fact; it symbolizes the enduring influence of history on the present. It illustrates how the past and present often intertwine in unexpected ways, adding new dimensions to our understanding of history.

Rediscovering Rome Before Washington

This exploration into the past reveals an often-overlooked chapter of American history. It uncovers how part of what is now Washington D.C. was once known as Rome, showing a connection between the old world and the new. This narrative not only highlights the forgotten stories of America’s past but also illustrates the rich tapestry of cultural and historical influences that shaped the nation.

In summary, the story of Rome, Maryland, is a reminder of the complex layers of history that underpin modern America. It showcases how historical narratives, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, can provide profound insights into the nation’s past. This tale of a forgotten Rome in America is a testament to the enduring legacy of those who shaped the early American landscape, reminding us of the intricate connections between history, culture, and identity.

https://ghostsofdc.org/2014/02/11/washington-originally-called-rome/

Capitol Hill is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both Northeast and Southeast D.C. It is bounded by 14th Street SE & NE, F Street NE, Southeast Boulevard SE, and South Capitol Street SE. Dominated by the United States Capitol, which sits on the highest point of Capitol Hill, it is one of the oldest historic districts in Washington. The neighborhood has a high concentration of rowhouses, largely dating from the 19th century. Home to around 35,000 people in just under 2 square miles (5 km2), Capitol Hill is also one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Washington.[1] The name Capitol Hill is frequently used as a metonym for the U.S. Congress.

Capitol Hill is famed as a center of the United States government, home to numerous important institutions including the U.S. Congress, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, and more. Apart from government, the neighborhood is largely residential, but maintains notable commercial hubs along Pennsylvania Avenue, such as Eastern Market and Barracks Row.

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

The Old Man of the Mountain (Arabic: شيخ الجبل, romanized: Shaykh al-Jabal, Latin: Vetulus de Montanis),[1] is the expression used by Marco Polo in a passage from Book of the Marvels of the World, to indicate Muhammad III of Alamut,[2] the grand master of the Order of Assassins, who took refuge in Alamut Castle. It later became a common name used by the Crusaders.[3]

Subsequently, this nickname was given to various Isma'ili successors of Hassan, in Syria, particularly,[4] for example Rashid al-Din Sinan, the da'i (missionary)[5] and a leader of the Syrian branch of the Nizari Isma'ili state.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Mountain_(Assassin)

Appointing a Successor and Eating Habits

SUMMARY: The hadith is about Umar bin al Khattab's speech on the importance of appointing a successor and his warning against eating onion and garlic.

It was narrated from Ma'dan bin Abi Talhah that 'Umar bin al Khattab delivered a khutbah on Friday, and he mentioned the Prophet of Allah ﷺ and Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه . He said: I saw a dream that I can only interpret as meaning that my death is near; I saw as if a rooster pecked me twice, and I was told that it was a red rooster. I told this dream to Asma’ bint 'Umais, the wife of Abu Bakr , and she said: You will be killed by a Persian man. The people are asking me to appoint a successor, but Allah will not cause His religion and His caliphate, with which He sent His Prophet ﷺ to be lost. If death comes to me soon, then the caliphate is to be decided by these six men with whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was pleased when he died. Whichever of them you swear allegiance to, then listen to him and obey. I know that some people will object to this matter. I have fought them with my own hands in the defense of Islam. They are the enemies of Allah and misguided Kafirs. By Allah, I am not leaving behind anything that my Lord instructed me to do and I came to the position of caliphate on that basis that is more important to me than kalalah. By Allah, the Prophet of Allah ﷺ never emphasised any issue to me since I accompanied him more than the issue of kalalah, until he poked me in the chest with his finger and said: 'Is not Ayatas-saif (the verse of summer, ie, it was revealed in summer), which appears at the end of Sooratan Nisa', sufficient for you?' If I live I will issue a decree that will be so clear that those who read the Qur'an and those who do not read it will be able to make decisions concerning it. I call upon Allah to bear witness over the governors of the regions, for I only sent them to be just and to teach the people their religion and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and to refer to me concerning any difficult matter. O people, you eat two plants which I find to be nothing but repugnant, this onion and garlic. I remember the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, if he noticed their smell coming from a man in the mosque, he would issue orders that he taken out from the mosque to al-Baqee'. Whoever must eat them, let him cook them to death". He said: He addressed the people on Friday and was attacked on Wednesday.

https://www.islamicity.org/hadith/search/index.php?q=33783&sss=1

Mythology

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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.[9]

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

A shiv, also chiv, schiv, shivvie or shank,[1][2] is a handcrafted bladed weapon resembling a knife that is commonly associated with prison inmates.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiv_(weapon)

There are multiple matches for Shiva, including a Hindu god and a Jewish mourning period.

Shiva (Hindu god)

Shiva is a major god in Hinduism, known as the god of destruction.

His name means "auspicious one".

He is also known as Mahadeva, which means "the great god".

Shiva is part of the Hindu trinity, the Trimurti, along with Brahma and Vishnu.

He is worshipped at many shrines in India and around the world.

Shiva is said to live in the Himalayas with his wife, Parvati.

Shiva (Jewish mourning period)

Shiva is a seven-day period of mourning that begins after the burial of a loved one.

The word "shiva" comes from the Hebrew word sheva, which means "seven".

During shiva, mourners traditionally stay home or at the home of the deceased.

They also wear torn clothing or a black ribbon pinned to their clothes.

Shiva is a time to remember, accept death, and return to life.

Generative AI is experimental.

On September 11, 2001, during the terrorist attacks on the United States, Shanksville received worldwide attention after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township, 1.75 miles (2.82 km) north of the town of Shanksville, killing all 40 civilians and four al-Qaeda hijackers on board. The hijackers had intended to fly the plane to Washington, D.C. and crash it into either the Capitol or the White House. However, after learning from family members via airphone of the earlier attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon, the passengers on board revolted against the hijackers and fought for control of the plane, causing it to crash. It was the only one of the four aircraft hijacked that day that never reached its intended target.[9]

There are two memorials to the event. The original, temporary Flight 93 National Memorial to the passengers and crew of Flight 93 was located on a hill, about 500 yards (460 m) from the crash site. On July 8, 2010, a new temporary entrance and memorial were opened at an area called "the Western Overlook". It is where the FBI set up their command center and where family members first saw the aftermath of the crash, bringing their own memorials, and where visitors can leave them today. The initial phase of permanent construction of the Flight 93 National Memorial, including the visitors' center, was completed by the 10th anniversary in 2011. The memorial is built around the crash site, following the plane's flight path, and protecting the area of impact, known as the "Sacred Ground", which remains protected and accessible only to family members of the passengers and crew.

Shanksville's volunteer firefighters and emergency personnel from the nearby towns of Central City, Somerset, and others rushed to the crash scene to search for survivors. Members of the New York City Fire Department donated to the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department a cross-shaped piece of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center. Mounted atop a Pentagon-shaped base, it was installed outside the firehouse and dedicated on August 24, 2008.[10][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanksville,_Pennsylvania

AI Overview

Learn more

The name "Edmond" originates from Old English, derived from the elements "ēad" (meaning "prosperity" or "riches") and "mund" (meaning "protector").

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Old English Roots:

The name is a variant spelling of "Edmund" and traces back to the Old English language.

Meaning:

The name "Edmond" signifies "wealthy protector" or "rich protector".

Historical Significance:

The name has been used in England for centuries, particularly in East Anglia, and is sometimes associated with Saint Edmund the Martyr.

Modern Usage:

While not as common as in the past, "Edmond" continues to be used as a given name, often chosen to honor English heritage or to convey the qualities of strength, prosperity, and guardianship.

Generative AI is experimental.

Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (5 June 1341 – 1 August 1402) was the fifth son (fourth surviving) of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Like many medieval English princes, Edmund gained his nickname from his birthplace: Kings Langley Palace in Hertfordshire. He was the founder of the House of York, but it was through the marriage of his younger son, Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, to Anne de Mortimer, great-granddaughter of Edmund's elder brother Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, that the House of York made its claim to the English throne in the Wars of the Roses. The other party in the Wars of the Roses, the incumbent House of Lancaster, was formed from descendants of Edmund's elder brother John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, Edward III's third son.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_of_Langley,_1st_Duke_of_York

50 Years in Langley:

Recollections of the Construction of CIA’s

Original Headquarters Building

In late 1961, CIA employees began relocating from a disparate collection of buildings in Washington,

DC, to a newly constructed headquarters complex in Langley, Virginia. The Original Headquarters Build

ing (OHB) was the first home designed specifically for Agency officers, and it still serves today as an iconic

symbol of CIA and its mission. As part of the commemoration of OHB’s 50 years of service, the Center for

the Study of Intelligence has compiled this collection of declassified articles and images that illustrate the

making of a key piece of CIA’s heritage.

Director, Center for the Study of Intelligence

https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/f4b6cf75ca9efcabacc393400eb01dd8/50-Years-in-Langley.pdf

Edmund the Martyr (also known as St Edmund or Edmund of East Anglia, died 20 November 869)[note 1] was king of East Anglia from about 855 until his death.

Few historical facts about Edmund are known, as the kingdom of East Anglia was devastated by the Vikings, who destroyed any contemporary evidence of his reign. Coins minted by Edmund indicate that he succeeded Æthelweard of East Anglia, as they shared the same moneyers. He is thought to have been of East Anglian origin, but 12th century writers produced fictitious accounts of his family, succession and his rule as king. Edmund's death was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which relates that he was killed in 869 after the Great Heathen Army advanced into East Anglia. Medieval versions of Edmund's life and martyrdom differ as to whether he died in battle fighting the Great Heathen Army, or if he met his death after being captured and then refusing the Viking leaders' demand that he renounce Christ.

A popular cult emerged after Edmund's death, and he was canonised by the Church. A series of coins commemorating him was minted from around the time East Anglia was absorbed by the kingdom of Wessex in 918, and in about 986, the French monk Abbo wrote of his life and martyrdom.

During the 10th century, Edmund's remains were translated from an unidentified location in East Anglia to Beodricesworth (modern Bury St Edmunds); they were temporarily moved to London for safekeeping in 1010. Edmund's cult flourished during the Early and High Middle Ages, and he and Edward the Confessor were regarded as the patron saints of medieval England until they were replaced by Saint George in the 15th century.[2] Medieval manuscripts and works of art relating to Edmund include Abbo's Passio Sancti Eadmundi, John Lydgate's 15th-century Life, the Wilton Diptych, and a number of church wall paintings.

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

Église St-Pierre de Montmartre

Montmartre & Northern Paris,Paris,France,Europe

Montmartre & Northern Paris

All that remains of the former Benedictine Abbey of Montmartre, this church dates back to the 12th century and is one of the oldest in Paris, though it has been much restored. Built atop a Roman temple to Mars, it was witness to the founding of the Jesuits in 1534, who met in the crypt under the guidance of Ignatius of Loyola.

Some say that the name Montmartre is derived from ‘Mons Martis’ (Latin for Mount of Mars); others prefer the Christian ‘Mont Martyr’ (Mount of the Martyr), a reference to the 3rd-century St Denis, who, according to legend, walked across Montmartre and on to the site of today’s Basilique de St-Denis after having been beheaded by Roman priests."

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/paris/montmartre-and-northern-paris/attractions/eglise-st-pierre-de-montmartre/a/poi-sig/1264286/1323143

Edmund Campion, SJ (25 January 1540 – 1 December 1581) was an English Jesuit priest and martyr. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Anglican England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His feast day is celebrated on 1 December.

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

Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ (c. 1585 – 28 August 1628) was one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales of the Catholic Church. The main source of information on Arrowsmith is a contemporary account written by an eyewitness and published a short time after his death. This document, conforming to the ancient style of the "Acts of martyrs" includes the story of the execution of another 17th-century recusant martyr, Richard Herst.

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

Aerosmith - Dude (Looks Like A Lady) (Official Music Video)

Aerosmith

Dec 24, 2009  #Aerosmith #DudeLooksLIkeALady

Official Music Video for “Dude (Looks LIke A Lady)” performed by Aerosmith, REMASTERED IN HD!

Listen to more from Aerosmith: https://stream.lnk.to/AerosmithYD

Subscribe to Aerosmith’s YouTube channel: https://aerosmith.lnk.to/YTSignupYD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf0oXY4nDxE

Al-Andalus[a] (Arabic: الأَنْدَلُس) was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The term is used by modern historians for the former Islamic states in modern Spain, Portugal[1] and France. The name describes the different Muslim[2][3] states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most of the peninsula[4][5][6] and part of present-day southern France (Septimania) under Umayyad rule. These boundaries changed constantly through a series of conquests Western historiography has traditionally characterized as the Reconquista,[2][3][7][8][9] eventually shrinking to the south and finally to the Emirate of Granada.

As a political domain, it successively constituted a province of the Umayyad Caliphate, initiated by the Caliph al-Walid I (711–750); the Emirate of Córdoba (c. 750–929); the Caliphate of Córdoba (929–1031); the first taifa kingdoms (1009–1110); the Almoravid Empire (1085–1145); the second taifa period (1140–1203); the Almohad Caliphate (1147–1238); the third taifa period (1232–1287); and ultimately the Nasrid Emirate of Granada (1238–1492). Under the Caliphate of Córdoba, the city of Córdoba became one of the leading cultural and economic centres throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Islamic world. Achievements that advanced Islamic and Western science came from al-Andalus, including major advances in trigonometry (Jabir ibn Aflah), astronomy (Al-Zarqali), surgery (Al-Zahrawi), pharmacology (Ibn Zuhr),[10] and agronomy (Ibn Bassal and Abū l-Khayr al-Ishbīlī). Al-Andalus became a conduit for cultural and scientific exchange between the Islamic and Christian worlds.[10]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus

1236

June 29 – Siege of Córdoba: Castilian forces under King Ferdinand III (the Saint) capture Muslim Córdoba from Emir Ibn Hud, as part of the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.[2]

July – At a diet (princely convention) in Piacenza, Emperor Frederick II proclaims his wish to recover all Italy for the Holy Roman Empire.[3]

Pope Gregory IX condemned the links that both the Knights Templer and Knights Hospitaller have with the Assassin fighters in the Middle East. He issues a bull, a formal proclamation issued by the pope, preventing further contact with the Assassins.

May 6 – Roger of Wendover, English Benedictine monk and chronicler, dies at St. Albans Abbey. His chronicle is continued by Matthew of Paris.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1236

Atheism: resisting it with all our forces is a special mission given to the Society by the supreme pontiff, 253 2°; a mission which should permeate all forms of our apostolate, 254; our efforts are to be directed toward nonbelievers, ibid.; toward that end, an experience of God must be fostered in ourselves, 223 §§3-4, 224, 247

1° 2° 3° 6°;

and also in others, by means of the Spiritual Exercises, 271

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf  

The idea of uniting the Templars with the Hospitallers was first argued publicly in a book published in 1305 by Raimon Llull, a renowned illuminatus from Majorca. Llull’s book, Libre de Fine, (“Free At Last”) appeared in the midst of a raging controversy between the French monarchy and the Roman papacy over who held jurisdiction over the Templars. That is the subject of our next chapter.

Rulers of Evil

by F. Tupper Saussy

https://dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/rulers-of-evil-f.-tupper-saussy/Rulers%20of%20Evil%20-%20F.%20Tupper%20Saussy.pdf

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The alumbrados of Castile were a movement that caused much trouble during the first three decades of the sixteenth century. Their ideas were represented by the “Big Three” beatas who, under noble patronage, for at least a decade previous to the arrest in 1524 of the “mother” of the movement (Isabel de la Cruz) had successfully proselytized and spread their ideas throughout Old and New Castile.1

The alumbrados certainly were a charismatic bunch; they enjoyed success with the elites of Castilian society, comuneros, but above all with women and conversos. As a religious movement led by women the alumbrados were part of a growing trend of individual, charismatic female piety. By the time of Cardinal Cisneros’s death in 1517, however, the era of the alumbrados and their grassroots converso spirituality was nearing its end. While the actual heyday of their movement was short-lived the alumbrados made a huge impact upon the minds Prospering in the environment of Catholic spiritual exploration fostered by the personal theological interests of the Archbishop of Toledo Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros the alumbrados presented an interiorized approach to Christianity. Equipped with the meditational practice of dejamiento the alumbrados stressed the importance of an individual, pseudo-mystical “abandonment” to God and His will. They also emphasized the insignificance of external rituals and works, calling them ataduras or “shackles” to the material world, ties that only served to hinder one’s abandonment to God.

of the Inquisitors who prosecuted them and upon the Spanish religious imagination, an impact that would last across seas and time."

EL SABOR DE HEREJIA: THE EDICT OF 1525, THE ALUMBRADOS

AND THE INQUISITORS’ USAGE OF LOCURA

By

JAVIER A. MONTOYA

http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0041385/montoya_j.pdf

Alumbrado, (Spanish: “Enlightened”, ) Italian Illuminato, plural Illuminati, a follower of a mystical movement in Spain during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its adherents claimed that the human soul, having attained a certain degree of perfection, was permitted a vision of the divine and entered into direct communication with the Holy Spirit. From this state the soul could neither advance nor retrogress. Consequently, participation in the liturgy, good works, and observance of the exterior forms of religious life were unnecessary for those who had received the “light.” The Alumbrados came primarily from among the reformed Franciscans and the Jesuits, but their doctrines seem to have influenced all classes of people. The extravagant claims made for their visions and revelations caused them to be relentlessly persecuted. The Inquisition issued edicts against them on three occasions (1568, 1574, and 1623)."

https://www.britannica.com/event/Alumbrado

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Pali Buddha (“the Awakened One, the Enlightened One”), from buddha (“awakened, enlightened”), from Sanskrit बुद्ध (buddha, “awakened, enlightened”), past participle of बोधति (bodhati, “to wake, to awaken”). Distantly related to English bid and bede. Also cognate with Russian будить (buditʹ, “to wake up”)."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Buddha

Gautama

surname of the Buddha, from Sanskrit Gotamah, properly a patronymic, literally "descendant of the greatest ox," from superlative of gauh "ox, bull, cow."

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

Unam Sanctam

One God, One Faith, One Spiritual Authority

Pope Boniface VIII - 1302

Bull of Pope Boniface VIII promulgated November 18, 1302

Urged by faith, we are obliged to believe and to maintain that the Church is one, holy, catholic, and also apostolic. We believe in her firmly and we confess with simplicity that outside of her there is neither salvation nor the remission of sins, as the Spouse in the Canticles [Sgs 6:8] proclaims: ‘One is my dove, my perfect one. She is the only one, the chosen of her who bore her,‘ and she represents one sole mystical body whose Head is Christ and the head of Christ is God [1 Cor 11:3]. In her then is one Lord, one faith, one baptism [Eph 4:5]. There had been at the time of the deluge only one ark of Noah, prefiguring the one Church, which ark, having been finished to a single cubit, had only one pilot and guide, i.e., Noah, and we read that, outside of this ark, all that subsisted on the earth was destroyed.

We venerate this Church as one, the Lord having said by the mouth of the prophet: ‘Deliver, O God, my soul from the sword and my only one from the hand of the dog.’ [Ps 21:20] He has prayed for his soul, that is for himself, heart and body; and this body, that is to say, the Church, He has called one because of the unity of the Spouse, of the faith, of the sacraments, and of the charity of the Church. This is the tunic of the Lord, the seamless tunic, which was not rent but which was cast by lot [Jn 19:23- 24]. Therefore, of the one and only Church there is one body and one head, not two heads like a monster; that is, Christ and the Vicar of Christ, Peter and the successor of Peter, since the Lord speaking to Peter Himself said: ‘Feed my sheep‘ [Jn 21:17], meaning, my sheep in general, not these, nor those in particular, whence we understand that He entrusted all to him [Peter]. Therefore, if the Greeks or others should say that they are not confided to Peter and to his successors, they must confess not being the sheep of Christ, since Our Lord says in John ‘there is one sheepfold and one shepherd.’ We are informed by the texts of the gospels that in this Church and in its power are two swords; namely, the spiritual and the temporal. For when the Apostles say: ‘Behold, here are two swords‘ [Lk 22:38] that is to say, in the Church, since the Apostles were speaking, the Lord did not reply that there were too many, but sufficient. Certainly the one who denies that the temporal sword is in the power of Peter has not listened well to the word of the Lord commanding: ‘Put up thy sword into thy scabbard‘ [Mt 26:52]. Therefore, both are in the power of the Church, namely, the spiritual sword and the material. But indeed, the latter is to be exercised on behalf of the Church; and truly, the former is to be exercised by the Church. The former is of the priest; the latter is by the hand of kings and soldiers, but at the will and sufferance of the priest.

However, one sword ought to be subordinated to the other and temporal authority, subjected to spiritual power. For since the Apostle said: ‘There is no power except from God and the things that are, are ordained of God‘ [Rom 13:1-2], but they would not be ordained if one sword were not subordinated to the other and if the inferior one, as it were, were not led upwards by the other.

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

All historians acknowledge the ascendancy of the popes began in 308 A.D., when King Clovis of the Salian or Merovingian Franks (later France), won the decisive battle in the Catholic and Arian religious war, thereby settling the dispute in favor of the Catholics. But the popes' temporal reign officially began in the year 538 A.D. when Roman Emperor Justinian subdued the last of the three kingdoms, or "horns," that opposed the rise of the Papacy."

-page 137

Chapter 19 "Exposed (Again): 1260 Years of World Domination

Codeword Barbelon book 2 by P.D. Stuart

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid035xnEp3Ly2wiUwdPzYuyuedPDSdcSEVe8gzHxCZfovqX8epcgRL4v7RbqwVsjavD3l

The Priory of Sion is an initiatory Order of chivalry, founded on July 15 1099 in Jerusalem, by Godfrey of Bouillon, at the Abbey "Our Lady of Mount Sion" as "Order of our Lady of Mount Sion."The Order, after being registered for the first time in history, in 1956, and then being dissolved in 1993, was newly registered in 2015, perpetuating the legitimate Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair's lineage, through the actual Grand Master, Marco Rigamonti.The Priory of Sion is characterized by a gnostic and rosicrucian influence, who sets himself the task of supporting and nurturing personal growth, moral and spiritual, with respect and in harmony with the personal objectives that each of us, by nature, has to carry through in life experience.It's also our purpose the esoteric research as the study and experience related to the transcendent and mystical in an environment of communion with our Brothers and Sisters, Members of the Order.The Priory of Sion today inherits a tradition of esoteric, philosophical, spiritual and cultural legacy, which favors the cultivation of values and principles that offers the way to live a more aware and noble personal dimension.We work through symbols, ancient rituals, theurgic practice and traditions, in order to live a personal and collective sprirituality in communion with our Brothers and Sisters.The Order is apolitical and forbids its members to be made a place of political debate, or even worse, to be exploited for such purposes."

http://www.prieure-de-sion.com/

The origins of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem date back to the First Crusade, when its leader, Godfrey de Bouillon, liberated Jerusalem. As part of his operations to organize the religious, military and public bodies of the territories newly freed from Muslim control, he founded the Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulchre. According to accounts of the Crusades, in 1103 the first King of Jerusalem, Baldwin I, assumed the leadership of this canonical order, and reserved the right for himself and his successors (as agents of the Patriarch of Jerusalem) to appoint Knights to it, should the Patriarch be absent or unable to do so.The Order’s members included not only the Regular Canons (Fratres) but also the Secular Canons (Confratres) and the Sergentes. The latter were armed knights chosen from the crusader troops for their qualities of valor and dedication; they vowed to obey Augustinian Rule of poverty and obedience and undertook specifically, under the command of the King of Jerusalem, to defend the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Places.Very soon after the First Crusade the troops – including the Knights of the Order of Canons of the Holy Sepulchre – began to return to their homelands. This led to the creation of priories all over Europe, which were part of the Order as they came under the jurisdiction of the noble knights or prelates who had been invested on the Holy Sepulchre itself and who, although they were no longer in the direct service of the King of Jerusalem, continued to belong to the Order of Canons.The Order first began to fail as a cohesive military body of knights after Saladin regained Jerusalem in 1182, and completely ceased to exist in that format after the defeat of Acre in 1291. The passing of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem left the Order without a leader, though it continued to survive in the European priories thanks to the protection of sovereigns, princes, bishops and the Holy See. The priories kept alive the ideals of the Crusader Knights: propagation of the Faith, defense of the weak, charity towards other human beings. With the exception of events in Spain, it was only rarely that the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre ever took part again in military action to defend Christianity.In the 14th century, the Holy See made an extremely high payment to the Egyptian Sultan so that he would grant the right to protect the Christian Sanctuaries to the Franciscan Friars Minor. Throughout the whole period of the Latin Patriarchate’s suppression, the right to create new Knights was the prerogative of the representative of the highest Catholic authority in the Holy Land: the Custos.In 1847 the Patriarchate was restored and Pope Pius IX modernized the Order, issuing a new Constitution, which placed it under the direct protection of the Holy See and conferred its government to the Latin Patriarch. The Order’s fundamental role was also defined: to uphold the works of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, whilst preserving the spiritual duty of propagating the Faith.In 1949, Pius XII decreed that the Grand Master of the Order should be a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and assigned the position of Grand Prior to the Patriarch of Jerusalem. In 1962 Pope John XXIII and, in 1967, Pope Paul VI reorganized and revitalized the Order by adding more specific regulations to the Constitution with the intention of making the Order’s activities more co-coordinated and more effective.In February 1996, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II enhanced the Order’s status. Today it is a Public Association of faithful with a legal canonical and public personality, constituted by the Holy See under Canon Law 312, paragraph 1:1.

https://eohsjeastern.org/a-brief-history/

Horses: the extent to which they can be possessed in our houses [575, 576]; the extent to which they can be used on missions [574, 625]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

[In the year 1110, a mysterious order called the Prieuré de Sion appeared upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This mysterious secret order, the Prieuré de Sion, was eventually to crown the first king, the first Christian king of Jerusalem. When they appeared in the Temple Mount in 1110, they recruited nine knights to comb, to scour the Temple Mount, the passages and caverns and tunnels beneath for the ancient remains of the relics of their religion.]

Later in A.D. 1118, nine knights, [supposedly] concerned for the welfare of pilgrims to the Holy Land, bound themselves together in the creation of a knightly Order. [This order, again existing of nine knights, just like the original nine knights, were commissioned by the Prieuré de Sion.] In under two hundred years [folks] this organization had become one of the most powerful single entities—if not the greatest—[power ever to exist] in Europe. [They were the first international bankers. The first that ever existed in the world.] A few years later it was utterly destroyed. [They say, however, as you're going to find out, they were not destroyed at all, but merely driven underground.] The zeal of religion, the conditioning which made men support a dedicated cause with all of their might, was likewise the instrument of their destruction. Nothing less than religious fervor could have smashed the Order: as nothing less could have created it.

[And folks, you're going to find it difficult to believe, but the rise of this order and destruction, at least publically, of this order has such a great bearing on events today that you could say that everything that has happened since has been brought about by this one series of acts.]

Were the Knights Templar devil-worshippers, secret Saracens indulging in obscene orgies? Did they adore a head, spit on the Cross, use the word, 'Yallah' [which means literally in Arabic,] (O Allah!) in their rituals? Did they learn their ways from the terrible sect of the Assassins?

[Well, yes folks, they did. And they are the link—at least, in that day, would have been considered the modern link—between the ancient Mystery Religion of Babylon and Europe. For the religion had come to Europe long, long before the Templars ever emerged, and made their appearance in the ancient worship of the sun by the Druids and the Celts, and the tribes, the Germanic tribes who had made their way thousands of years ago from the Middle East up through Asia, and across Russia and into Europe. They brought Mystery Babylon with them, and practiced it as what we now know of today as the pagan religion. And Stonehenge is actually an ancient Babylonian temple of the sun. And you will find how all this connects later.]

[But the origin of this was lost, and the ability to control large numbers of people, by the use of the hidden knowledge of the ages, was lost. It wasn't until the Knights Templar bought [sic] and brought the Mystery Religion of Babylon to Europe, that the ancient, ancient worship of the sun again took hold. Amongst the Christian countries, in the guise of Christianity, which was itself at that time—I'm not talking about the teachings of Christ now, I'm talking about the perversion of the teachings of Christ—the melding of the teachings of Christ with the ancient worship of the sun, the Mystery Religion of Babylon which became the Catholic church was indeed another branch of the ancient Mystery Religion of Babylon. And some of you out there may be confused from all of this.]

[If you've been listening from the beginning of this series, then you're right on target; you're not confused, you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you picked up this series somewhere in the middle, then you need to call Stan and order the studio quality tapes. They're in stereo, they're on TDK tapes, first-quality tapes and crystal clear. You need to order this series from the first tape, the very first, and that was broadcast on February the 12th, I believe, a Friday. But anyway, Stan will know. Give him a call at (602) 567-6109. That's (602) 567-6109 or write to Stan and ask him for an information packet at P.O. Box 889, Camp Verde, Arizona, 86322. That's P.O. Box 889, Camp Verde, Arizona, 86322.]

[Now, folks,] the original objective of the Order [of the Temple—Knights Templar], which immediately because the subject of applause throughout Christendom, was to combine the two functions of monk and knight, to live chastely and fight the Saracents with the sword and spirit. The Sweet Mother of God [at least outwardly they say] was chosen as their patroness; and they bound themselves to live in accordance with the rules of St. Augustine, electing as the their first leader Hugh de Payens. [Now] King Baldwin II granted him a part of his palace to live in and gave them a grant toward its upkeep. [Now the part of the palace they lived in was an ancient mosque, which was built upon the actual location of the old Temple of Solomon, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.]

[The Knights Templar] vowed to consecrate their swords, arms, strength and lives to the defense of the mysteries of the Christian faith; to pay complete and utter obedience to the orders of the Grand Master; to fight whenever commanded, regardless of perils, for the faith of Christ as they understood it. Among the vows taken which were forbade their yielding even a foot of land to the enemy [whoever the enemy was] and not to retreat, even if attacked in the proportion of three to one. They choose the name militia temple—Soldiers of the Temple—after the temple supposedly built by Solomon in Jerusalem, near which they had been assigned quarters by the King. [But in reality had nothing to do with the Temple of Solomon.]

Some say that the Templars derived their idea of their Order from that of the Hospitallars, who looked after Catholic pilgrims to Palestine; for there was little hospitality to be had from the native Orthodox Christians of those parts. Others hold that there was an even older Order from which they received their inspiration. No reliable evidence is, at this point however, available. [According to the "establishment" historians, although for those who really, really research the true history of the secret orders, and specifically the Knights Templars, there's a direct connection to the Assassins and the Roshaniya.]

Although the Templars were so poor than two men had to share a horse [they say, but that is not true at all] (and their Seal commemorated this decades after they became one of the richest communities of their time), they soon attracted favorable notice and support. [Now, the two knights riding a horse was a symbol of sacrifice. It denoted their vows of poverty. In truth, each knight now only had a horse, but he had what they called a yeoman. He had a spare horse, he had a pack horse, and he had several horses in reserve, and a whole train of servants. But the Knights Templar were the first true—as we know it in modern times, in modern times there were others before, but they were the first true in modern times—and by modern, 112 I'd say, from the time that Europe escaped from the old tribal of paganism. In other words in 1110, I consider that to be beginning of the modern age. Although historians may disagree with me, it's the beginning of everything that has happened since, and everything that's happening today can be traced right to the door of the Knights Templar, and that's why I say that. They were the first modern order to practice what we now know as true Communism. They were the ones who brought international Socialism into Europe, which has always been the tenet and the creed of the Mystery Religion of Babylon.] Only one year after their establishment, Fulk, Count of Anjou, who had come to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage, joined as a married member and gave them an annual grant of thirty pounds of silver. This example was soon followed by other devout Western princes.

For the first nine years of their existence, the knights continued to live a life of chastity and poverty in accordance with their vows. They adopted a striped black and white banner, called the Beauséant, after their original piebald horse; and this word also became their battle-cry. Special raiment they had none, and they wore whatever clothes were given to them by the pious. But little by little, as one writer puts it, they were to become “haughty and insolent”.

[And the black and white banner, the translation of the meaning of which was for the, again, exoteric, for the real meaning of the black and white banner was the meaning of the androgynous god, the positive and the negative, the black and the white, the yin and the yang, the male and the female combined into one, and that was the real meaning of the black and white banner. And it's carried forth today on the floor of many of the temples of Freemasonry where the black and white checkered pattern exists, and in one famous cathedral in Europe built by the Knights Templar. They disguised their esoteric religion in an exoteric manner that would be accepted by Christianity.]

Baldwin of Jerusalem, who had been a prisoner in the hands of the Saracens and knew of their disunity, realized at about this time that Islam must eventually unite against the Christian invasion, and the decided that the Templars who prove ideal allies in the battles which were to come. In 1127, therefore, he sent two Templars with his strong recommendation to the Pope, applying for official recognition of the Order by the Holy See. [And this is the first time that the Templars even were considered to be close to the center of religion, the Christian religion in that day, the Catholic church, the Pope. For they were not commissioned as a Christian order; they were not commissioned by the Pope or by the church, and this is a big myth that the Knights Templar started out to protect the church and to protect the pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. They were established first, primarily, and foremost as a branch of the ancient order of the Religion of Mystery Babylon. And it's indicative of the strategies that they've used since to endear themselves to whatever the established power, or the beliefs of the majority of the people might be.]

[When they went to see the Pope,] they had an introduction to St. Bernard himself, the Abbot of Clairvaux, who was known to be admirer of theirs, and who was a nephew of one of their envoys. Then the Grand Master himself arrived in Europe, and received the eulogistic opinion of the Abbot: “They go not headlong into battle, but with care and foresight, peacefully, as true children of Israel. But as soon as the fight had begun, they rush without delay upon the foe . . . and know no fear . . . one has often put to flight a thousand; two, ten thousand . . . gentler than lambs and grimmer than lions; theirs is the mildness of monks and the valor of the knight.” [Now folks, this was a strong recommendation, and this testimonial was part of the campaign of the Templars in their efforts at recognition of the Pope. All of you who have thought that they began as a religious order in the first place are so way off base that it's pathetic. And neither were the Jesuits a religious order in the first place, but we'll get that together in another broadcast.] [But] on the 31st [of] January [in the year] 1128, the Master appeared before the Council of Troyes. This formidable body consisted of the Archbishops of Rheims and Sens, ten bishops and a number of abbots—including St. Bernard himself - presided over by the Cardinal of Albano, the Papal legate. They were approved; and Pope Honorius chose for them a white mantle, completely plain. The red cross was added by order of Pope Eugenius III in 1146. [And see, you thought the Templars thought of this. Nope not at all. This was mandated by two Popes: first, the white mantle, completely plain; and then later the red cross was added by Pope Eugenius III in 1146.]

Hugh de Payens now took his delegation through France and England, and collected a number of recruits. Gifts and grants were showered upon the Order; lands, rents and arms were forthcoming from all quarters. Richard I of England was enthusiastic about them. By 1133, King Alfonso of Aragon and Naverre, who had fought the Spanish Moors in twenty-nine 113 battles, had willed his country to them; although when the Moors finally laid him low his nobles prevented the Templars from claiming their rights. [Nevertheless, this was of great honor. In fact, to my knowledge and to our research into history, it never had before been done.]

In 1129 the Master, accompanied by three hundred knights, recruited from the noblest houses of Europe, led a huge train of pilgrims to the Holy Land. It was at this time that the Templars formed part of the Christian contingent which, allied with the Assassins, tried to take Damascus. [And it wasn't the first time nor the last that the Christian Knights Templar, or supposedly Christian Knights Templar (they really weren't Christian at all) were allied with the Assassins.] Were they (as the Orientalist von Hammer alleges)109 connected in some secret way with the Assassins? [Yes, our research shows that it is a historical fact. And it is also a historical fact that the Assassins were prepared to adopt Christianity if they could gain greater power thereby (Christianity, that is, on the surface, just as the Knights Templar had done)]. Hammer points to the similarities of the two organizations. The followers of Hasan Ibn Sabah were in contact with the Templars, and had a similar method of organization. They were in existence before the Templars were formed: “The Ismailians ([or] Assassins) was the original, and [folks] the Order of the Templars, [was] the copy.”

The balance of Western opinion is against this contention; more particularly because, one feels from wide reading of historians, great sympathy is felt for the cruelly treated and a arbitrarily dispossessed Templars. Thus Keightley, who made a close study of the Order those who would claim that the Templars were an Assassin branch [but, when you do research into the (laughs) associations and memberships of Keightley, you'll find that Keightley was himself a Knight Templar. And he said:]

“When, nearly thirty years after their institution, the Pope gave them permission to wear a cross on their mantle, like the rival Hospitaller Order, no color could present itself to well suited to those who daily and hourly exposed themselves to martyrdom as that of blood, in which there was so much of what was symbolical. With respect to internal organization it will, we apprehend, be always found that this is for the most part of the growth of time and the product of circumstances; and it always nearly the same where these last are similar.”110

[And you find this kind of rhetoric, semantics, all throughout the writings of those who wish to cover the true origin and the true meaning of Mystery Babylon.]

The famous question of the three thousand gold pieces paid by the Syrian branch of the Assassins to the Templars is another matter which has [of course] never been settled. One opinion holds that this money was given as a tribute to the Christians; the other, that it was a secret allowance from the larger to the small organization. [Which it really was as the Assassins wished to expand their control and remember their original goal was to take over the entire world by the systematic infiltration and control of each individual country.] Those who think that the Assassins were fanatical Moslems, and therefore would not form any alliance with those who to them were infidels, should be reminded that to the followers of the Old Man of the Mountains only he was right, and the Saracens who were fighting the Holy War for Allah against the Crusaders were as bad as anyone else who did not accept the Assassin doctrine.

[And it is true today: “If you are not one of us, you are nothing.” “The ends justify the means.” “The strength of our Order exists in the fact that we manifest ourselves under many different names and many different occupations, and sometimes even seem to oppose ourselves. But at the highest level, we are of one mind."

And I could go on, and on (laughs), and on, and you all know that I could go on and on and on. For I have studied this for so many years that I eat, drink and sleep it. Oh yes.]

[Well, eventually] grave charges against the Templars during the Crusades included the allegation that they were fighting for themselves alone. More than one historical incident bears this out. The Christians had besieged the town of Ascalon in 1153, and were engaged upon burning down the walls with large piles of inflammable materials. Part of the wall fell after a whole night of this burning. The Christian army was about to enter, when the Master of the Temple (Bernard de Tremelai)

109 Chevalier Joseph von Hammer, The History of the Assassins: Derived from Oriental sources, 1835

110 Thomas Keightley, Secret Societies of the Middle Ages, 1837

claimed the right to take the town himself. This was because the first contingent into a conquered town had the whole spoils. As it happened, the garrison rallied and killed the Templars, closing the breach. There seem good grounds for believing that the power which they had gained caused the Templars to devote their efforts as much to their own Order's welfare as to the cause of the Cross, in spite of their tremendous sacrifices for that cause. Having no loyalty to any territorial chief, they obeyed their Master alone, and hence no softening political pressure could be put upon them. [Well,] this might well have led to an idea that they were an invisible super-state [and that is exactly the fact]; and this does show some similarity with the invisible empire of the Assassins. If none can deny their bravery, their high-handedness and exclusivity, in less than a hundred and fifty years after their founding gave them the reputation of considering themselves almost a law unto themselves.

[No longer reading] And now, dear listeners, we get into the meat, the direct connection between the historical events and the events that are happening today. Don't miss even one episode of this series. Good night, and may God bless each and every one of you.

(Outro music: Stardust)111

The Templars and the Assassins (aired March 2nd, 1993)

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

Hajj Amin al-Husayni meets Hitler

In this German propaganda newsreel, the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, an Arab nationalist and prominent Muslim religious leader, meets Hitler for the first time. During the meeting, held in in the Reich chancellery, Hitler declined to grant al-Husayni’s request for a public statement—or a secret but formal treaty—in which Germany would: 1) pledge not to occupy Arab land, 2) recognize Arab striving for independence, and 3) support the “removal” of the proposed Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Führer confirmed that the “struggle against a Jewish homeland in Palestine” would be part of the struggle against the Jews. Hitler stated that: he would “continue the struggle until the complete destruction of Jewish-Communist European empire”; and when the German army was in proximity to the Arab world, Germany would issue “an assurance to the Arab world” that “the hour of liberation was at hand.” It would then be al-Husayni’s “responsibility to unleash the Arab action that he has secretly prepared.” The Führer stated that Germany would not intervene in internal Arab matters and that the only German “goal at that time would be the annihilation of Jewry living in Arab space under the protection of British power.”

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/hajj-amin-al-husayni-meets-hitler

The ratlines (German: Rattenlinien) were systems of escape routes for German Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe from 1945 onwards in the aftermath of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in the Americas, particularly in Argentina, though also in Paraguay, Colombia,[1] Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Bolivia, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia, Spain, and Switzerland.

There were two primary routes: the first went from Germany to Spain, then Argentina; the second from Germany to Rome, then Genoa, then South America. The two routes developed independently but eventually came together.[2] The ratlines were supported by rogue elements in the Vatican, particularly an Austrian bishop and four Croatian clergy of the Catholic Church who sympathized with the Ustaše.[3][4][5] Starting in 1947, U.S. Intelligence used existing ratlines to move certain Nazi strategists and scientists.[6]

While consensus among Western scholars is that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler died by suicide in 1945, in the late 1940s and 1950s the U.S. investigated claims that he survived and fled to South America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_(World_War_II)

The Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former Nazi Germany to the US for government employment after the end of World War II in Europe, between 1945 and 1959; several were confirmed to be former members of the Nazi Party, including the SS or the SA.

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

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

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

Kodashim (Hebrew: קׇדָשִׁים‎, romanized: Qoḏāšim, lit. 'holy things') is the fifth of the six orders, or major divisions, of the Mishnah, Tosefta and the Talmud, and deals largely with the services within the Temple in Jerusalem, its maintenance and design, the korbanot, or sacrificial offerings that were offered there, and other subjects related to these topics, as well as, notably, the topic of kosher slaughter.

Topics

This Seder (order, or division) of the Mishnah is known as Kodashim (“sacred things” or “sanctities”), because it deals with subjects connected with Temple service and ritual slaughter of animals (shehitah). The term kodashim, in the Biblical context, applies to the sacrifices, the Temple and its furnishings, as well as the priests who carried out the duties and ceremonies of its service; and it is with these holy things, places and people that Kodashim is mainly concerned. The title Kodashim is apparently an abbreviation of Shehitat Kodashim ("the slaughter of sacred animals") since the main, although not the only subject of this order is sacrifices.[1][2][3]

The topics of this Seder are primarily the sacrifices of animals, BIRDS, and meal offerings, the laws of bringing a sacrifice, such as the sin offering and the guilt offering, and the laws of misappropriation of sacred property. In addition, the order contains a description of the Second Temple (tractate Middot), and a description and rules about the daily sacrifice service in the Temple (tractate Tamid). The order also includes tractate Hullin, which concerns the slaughter of animals for non-sacrificial use, as well as other dietary laws applying to meat and animal products. Although Hullin is about the slaughter of animals for non-sacrificial, and therefore unsanctified purposes, because the rules about the proper slaughter of animals and birds, and their ritual fitness for use were considered to be an integral part of the concept of holiness in Judaism, they were also included in the order regarding “holy things”.[2][3]

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

Zevachim (“Sacrifices”), with FOURTEEN chapters, and originally called Shehitat Kodashim ("slaughtering of the holy animals") deals with the sacrificial system of the Temple period, namely the laws for animal and bird offerings, and the conditions which make them acceptable or not, as specified in the Torah, primarily in the book of Leviticus (Lev 1:2 and on).[1][2][4]

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

Lunar Day

The duration of a single day on the Moon, from sunrise to sunrise, is approximately 29.5 Earth days. However, this is broken down into roughly 14.75 days of daylight followed by 14.75 days of nighttime, due to the Moon's synchronous rotation with Earth.

When we refer to the "life of one lunar day" in the context of a moon mission, it usually pertains to the duration of sunlight (daytime) that the mission equipment can operate within. This is because most moon missions, including rovers and landers, rely on solar panels for power. During the lunar night, temperatures can drop drastically (to below minus 200 degrees Celsius), and without sunlight, there's no power generation from solar panels. This extreme cold can also be damaging to equipment.

So, when a mission states its operational life as "one lunar day," it typically means it is designed to function during the approximately 14 Earth days of sunlight on the Moon, after which it may go into a dormant state during the lunar night, or it might cease operations altogether due to the harsh conditions.

https://www.sriramsias.com/upsc-daily-current-affairs/lunar-day/

Osiris, one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt. The origin of Osiris is obscure; he was a local god of Busiris, in Lower Egypt, and may have been a personification of chthonic (underworld) fertility. By about 2400 bce, however, Osiris clearly played a double role: he was both a god of fertility and the embodiment of the dead and resurrected king. This dual role was in turn combined with the Egyptian concept of divine kingship: the king at death became Osiris, god of the underworld; and the dead king’s son, the living king, was identified with Horus, a god of the sky. Osiris and Horus were thus father and son. The goddess Isis was the mother of the king and was thus the mother of Horus and consort of Osiris. The god Seth was considered the murderer of Osiris and adversary of Horus.

According to the form of the myth reported by the Greek author Plutarch, Osiris was slain or drowned by Seth, who tore the corpse into 14 pieces and flung them over Egypt. Eventually, Isis and her sister Nephthys found and buried all the pieces, except the phallus, thereby giving new life to Osiris, who thenceforth remained in the underworld as ruler and judge. His son Horus successfully fought against Seth, avenging Osiris and becoming the new king of Egypt.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Osiris-Egyptian-god

Genesis in the Land of the Pharaohs

Isis ("Aset" in the native language) had her start as a comparatively minor deity of Egypt. She was a protector of the throne of Egypt, perhaps in some ways the personification of Royal Power. But she had been subordinate in the official Egyptian pantheon to deities more intimately connected with the great king, like Ra and Horus.

AD

The collapse of the Old Kingdom brought about several sweeping changes in Egyptian religion. Eternal life, which had once been viewed as the sole province of the King, came to be seen as the reward for all those willing to submit to the proper cults.

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In this new paradigm, Isis took center stage and became the central goddess in the popular religion of the Egyptian people.

Myth tells how Osiris, the first god-king of Egypt, introduced laws and agriculture to humankind. He was then deceived and murdered by his scheming brother Seth, god of chaos. Seth hacked Osiris' body into pieces and scattered them across Egypt, intending to rule Egypt himself.

Isis collected the pieces and magically revived her brother-husband Osiris, who became King of the Underworld. She also magically conceived a son, Horus. Isis and her supporters warred against Seth for the throne of Egypt. A council of gods eventually decided that Horus, as son of Osiris, was the rightful ruler, and Seth was demoted to fighting nocturnal demons.

A new paradigm emerged in which Osiris ruled the underworld, Horus ruled Egypt (and the Pharaohs were considered the incarnation of Horus) and Ra the sun god ruled the heavens.

But Isis as mistress of magic resurrected Osiris, and thus was superior to him. She conceived her son Horus magically and was superior to him. With her magic, she even had power over Ra the sun god.

In short, she was the real power behind the universe, which lead her cult adherents to proclaim her as Mistress of Heaven. More importantly, she had the power over life and death and could resurrect her followers in the same manner that saved her husband from oblivion.

As the myth of Isis and Osiris grew, Isis began displacing other deities in the loyalties of the Egyptian population.

The Hellenes Conquer and are Conquered by Egypt

The conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great opened a new era for the cult. In trying to find a religious cult that would unite both Egyptian and Hellenic subjects, Ptolemy Soter crafted the Isis cult as it would be introduced into Greco-Roman society.

AD

Osiris was renamed Serapis and identified with a variety of Egyptian and Hellenic gods (Osiris, Apis, Dionysus, Hades). He became a god of healing and the underworld.

Isis was identified with Hellenic deities such as Demeter or Aphrodite.

Greek iconography was introduced to the cult which made it visually appealing to the Hellenes. In those days when the provincial city-states of the Hellenic world fell to Alexander's universal empire, the traditional gods of the city-state no longer sufficed. Gods like Isis and Serapis were not connected with any specific town and were truly universal in scope.

More importantly, the exotic Egyptian mysticism could offer the Greeks of the Hellenistic age something their own gods could not: a way to cheat fate and death.

Isis and Osiris were honored by the Greeks and by Egyptian emigrants as a kind of holy trinity, but always it was Isis who was the dominant member of the trio.

Isis became the protector of family (especially women), the protector of newborns, the goddess of fertility and good fortune, and the goddess whose magic could cheat fate and death.

She was also thought to be a protector of sailors, and sailors sailing from the great port of Alexandria took her cult all over the Mediterranean.

Backed by the Ptolemaic regime, the new cult spread throughout the Hellenistic Kingdoms.

The Nile Flows into the Tiber

The Roman Senate was not amused with Ptolemy's attempt to craft a universal religion.

When the cult of Isis swept into Rome via Hellenistic sailors and Egyptian emigrants, it became extremely popular with women and the lower classes, including slaves.

AD

Fearing a religious unification of the lower strata of Roman society, and fearing the loss of piety in the traditional Roman gods of the state, the Senate repeatedly placed restrictions on the new cult.

Private chapels dedicated to Isis were ordered destroyed. When a Roman Consul found that the demolition team assigned to him were all members or sympathizers of the cult and refused to destroy their chapel, he had to remove his toga of state and do the deed himself.

How Did Different Roman Emperors View the Cult of Isis?

Augustus found the cult "pornographic," though the cult was known to proscribe periods of sexual abstinence to its adherents.

The real reason for Augustus' wrath was that the cult was linked to Egypt and thus the power base of his rival, Mark Antony. Cleopatra had even gone so far to declare herself Isis reincarnated.

Nonetheless, Augustus' scorn did little to stem popular opinion. Officials and servants of the imperial household were members of the cult. It seems even his own infamous daughter was a member; whether her belief was genuine or merely another aspect of her defiance against her father cannot be determined.

https://www.unrv.com/culture/isis.php

The Islamic State (IS),[a][b] is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and unrecognized quasi-state. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many countries around the world, including Muslim countries.[162]

IS gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants conquered large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing civil war in Syria and the disintegrating local military forces of Iraq. By the end of 2015, its self-declared caliphate ruled an area with a population of about 12 million,[117][118][163] where they enforced their extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.[164] After a grinding conflict with American, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces, IS lost control of all its Middle Eastern territories by 2019, subsequently reverting to insurgency from remote hideouts while continuing its propaganda efforts. These efforts have garnered a significant following in northern and Sahelian Africa,[165][166] where IS still controls a significant territory.[167][168]

Originating in the Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004, the organisation (primarily under the Islamic State of Iraq name) affiliated itself with al-Qaeda in Iraq and fought alongside them during the 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency. The group later changed their name to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant for about a year,[169][170] before declaring itself to be a worldwide caliphate,[171][172] called simply the Islamic State (الدولة الإسلامية, ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyya).[173]

As a caliphate, IS demanded the religious, political, and military obedience of Muslims worldwide,[174] despite the rejection of its legitimacy by mainstream Muslims and its statehood by the United Nations and most governments.[175] During its rule in Syria and Iraq, the group "became notorious for its brutality".[173] Under its rule of these regions, IS launched genocides against Yazidis and Iraqi Turkmen; engaged in persecution of Christians, Shia Muslims, and Mandaeans; publicised videos of beheadings of soldiers, journalists, and aid workers; and destroyed several cultural sites. The group has perpetrated terrorist massacres in territories outside of its control, such as the November 2015 Paris attacks, the 2024 Kerman bombings in Iran, and the 2024 Crocus City Hall attack in Russia. Lone wolf attacks inspired by the group have also taken place.

After 2015, the Iraqi Armed Forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces pushed back IS and degraded its financial and military infrastructure,[176] assisted by advisors, weapons, training, supplies, and airstrikes by the American-led coalition,[177] and later by Russian airstrikes, bombings, cruise missile attacks, and scorched-earth tactics across Syria, which focused mostly on razing Syrian opposition strongholds rather than IS bases.[178] By March 2019, IS lost the last of its territories in West Asia, although its affiliates maintained a significant territorial presence in Africa as of 2024.[167][168]

Name

Main article: Names of the Islamic State

See also: Name changes due to the Islamic State

The Islamic State, abbreviated IS,[179] is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL /ˈaɪsɪl/ EYE-sil), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS /ˈaɪsɪs/ EYE-siss),[180][181] and by its Arabic acronym Da'ish[182][183] or Daesh (داعش, Dāʿish, IPA: [ˈdaːʕɪʃ]),[184] and also as Dawlat al-Islām (دولة الإسلام).[185] In April 2013, having expanded into Syria, the group adopted the name ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya fī l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām (الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام). As al-Shām is a region often compared with the Levant or the region of Syria, the group's name has been variously translated as "Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham",[186] "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (both abbreviated as ISIS),[187] or "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (abbreviated as ISIL).[181] In 2014, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah dubbed ISIS as QSIS for "al-Qaeda Separatists in Iraq and Syria", arguing that ISIL does not represent the vast majority of Muslims.[188]

While the use of either one or the other acronym has been the subject of debate,[181] the distinction between the two and its relevance has been considered less important.[181] Of greater relevance is the name Daesh, which is an acronym of ISIL's Arabic name ad-Dawla al-Islamiyya fī l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām, or Daesh. This name has been widely used by ISIL's Arabic-speaking detractors,[186][189] for example when referring to the group whilst speaking amongst themselves, although—and to a certain extent because⁠—it is considered derogatory, as it resembles the Arabic words Daes ("one who crushes, or tramples down, something underfoot") and Dāhis (loosely translated as "one who sows discord").[184][190] Within areas under its control, ISIL considers use of the name Daesh punishable by flogging.[191]

In late June 2014, the group renamed itself ad-Dawla al-Islāmiyya (lit. 'Islamic State' or IS), declaring itself a worldwide caliphate.[172] The name "Islamic State" and the group's claim to be a caliphate have been widely rejected, with the UN, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups refusing to use the new name.[192] The group's declaration of a new caliphate in June 2014 and its adoption of the name "Islamic State" have been criticised and ridiculed by Muslim scholars and rival Islamists both inside and outside the territory it controls.[193]

In a speech in September 2014, United States President Barack Obama said that ISIL was neither Islamic (on the basis that no religion condones the killing of innocents) nor a state (in that no government recognises the group as a state),[194] while many object to using the name Islamic State owing to the far-reaching religious and political claims to authority which that name implies. The United Nations Security Council,[195] the United States,[194] Canada,[196] Turkey,[197] Australia,[198] the United Kingdom,[199] and other countries generally call the group ISIL, while much of the Arab world uses the Arabic acronym Dāʻish or Daesh. France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said: "This is a terrorist group and not a state. I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims, and Islamists. The Arabs call it 'Daesh' and I will be calling them the 'Daesh cutthroats'."[200] Retired general John Allen, the U.S. envoy appointed to co-ordinate the coalition; U.S. Army Lieutenant General James Terry, head of operations against the group; and Secretary of State John Kerry had all shifted towards use of the term Daesh by December 2014,[201] which nonetheless remained a pejorative in 2021.[202]

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

Ignatius of Loyola: Apostle to the Muslims

Posted on: 26th July 2016  |Author: Damian Howard SJ

Category: The Jesuits

Tags: Feast of St Ignatius, Ignatius, Islam, interreligious, Jesuit history

To educate the youth of Europe? To fight the spread of Protestantism? While many people would guess that one or both of these ambitions drove Ignatius of Loyola to found the Jesuits, he actually had something else in mind: a mission to the Muslim world. For the feast of St Ignatius, Damian Howard SJ considers how ‘Islam haunted Ignatius’s understanding of his calling’ and celebrates the fruitful work of the many Jesuits who have tried to realise Ignatius’s vision in their engagement with Muslims.

 

Ask the average Catholic why St Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus and they will likely say one of two things. First, remembering the Jesuits as bastions of the Counter-Reformation they might assume that Ignatius, militant Catholic that he was, had set out with a dream of a new religious order capable of defeating Protestantism. But whilst it was the case that the Jesuits would be active in efforts to reform the Catholic Church from within and to take on the growing power of Protestant theology and culture as it spread across Europe, this was never Ignatius’s underlying vision. Second, they might suppose that Ignatius had planned from the start a vast network of new schools which would revolutionise education throughout the continent. It’s true that this is indeed what Jesuit schools ended up doing, earning the order’s members the epithet of the ‘schoolmasters of Europe’, but this huge and innovative project came about as the result of a proposal made to Ignatius after he had already become Superior General of the new order; it was never education per se that he saw as its prime mission.

So the following claim may be unexpected: Ignatius’s original apostolic orientation was actually defined in relation to the Muslim world.

This shouldn’t be entirely surprising given the state of Europe at that time in history. Ignatius was born in the Basque country in 1491. Just one year later, the Reconquista reached its conclusion with the Catholic Kings finally ousting the last Muslim rulers from their vestigial Andalusian states, giving Christian princes possession of the whole Iberian Peninsula. The year 1492 was also notable for another major geopolitical event involving Spain: the European discovery of the New World. It was all but impossible to avoid the thought that America was the reward for Spanish triumph against the Moors. Now, the energy which had propelled the Spanish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula would be released outwards; the colonial age of conquest and exploitation was dawning for a new Catholic Spain and it was to be a golden age for Spanish Catholicism. We may rightly harbour ambiguous feelings about this aggressively Christian state but this was a moment when Spanish Catholics must have felt like masters of the world.

But Spain was the exception in Europe. The rest of the continent cowered under the threat of imminent Muslim invasion, not from the South but from the Ottoman Turks in the East. The sixteenth century was to see the high-water mark of Ottoman interest in Central and Eastern Europe. Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan from 1520-1566, would personally lead the push all the way into Hungary as well as taking control of Mediterranean islands like Rhodes and swathes of North Africa. With Turkish armies besieging Vienna, no-one on the continental mainland could feel confident that Christianity would retain indefinitely its hegemonic grip. It’s worth remembering that part of the urgency of the Reformation itself lay in its apocalyptic fear of the Turkish menace. Luther thought that the Muslim invaders were to be God’s chastisement for a Europe mired in the ‘horrible abomination of the papal darkness and idolatry’.[i] He wanted his Protestant Christians to die martyrs of the true faith rather than fighting in some allegedly holy war blasphemously prosecuted in Christ’s name.

The Reformation can be better understood within the context of this much larger clash, dare I say, of civilisations. And Ignatius wanted to play his part in it. How can one be confident of such a claim? Because, right from the start, Ignatius’s stated apostolic impulse was towards the Muslim world.

You can see it most obviously in the account given in his Autobiography of the conversion experience he went through as he was convalescing in his ancestral home in Loyola. He had suffered a severe cannon wound in the leg during military action in Pamplona. His moment of conversion came about when he noticed the subtlest of differences between the after-effects of two daydreams:

When he thought of worldly things it gave him great pleasure, but afterward he found himself dry and sad. But when he thought of journeying to Jerusalem, and of living only on herbs, and practising austerities, he found pleasure not only while thinking of them, but also when he had ceased.

He took that difference between his affective responses to be indicative of the way God was leading him on his life journey. Judging that the enduring good feelings associated with the journey to Jerusalem showed it to be God’s will for him, he undertook to follow the second programme, going on pilgrimage and living the ascetical, penitential life of a mendicant. The journey to Jerusalem, then, was what he presented to the outside world as his earliest apostolic desire. Its association with his conversion experience also makes it, surely, something of a touchstone of his on-going spiritual discernment.[ii]

But what exactly did pilgrimage to Jerusalem signify? Pilgrimage to the Holy Land had been the most potent form of devotion available to medieval Christians and, for Ignatius, it is clear that proximity to the site of the incarnation was a central attraction; at one stage, he would go to extravagant lengths to work out the precise direction in which the Lord must have been looking at the moment of his Ascension. But at the time, the Holy City was also under the rule of the Ottoman Turks, the Crusades having failed to win back for Christian Europe the territory once held by the Roman Empire. To visit Jerusalem was, thus, to enter the House of Islam.

If we look at the Spiritual Exercises, especially the ‘Call of the Eternal King’ (93), we might surmise that the trip had a crusading flavour to it. But Ignatius wasn’t planning to travel as a soldier. Instead, in addition to visiting the holy places, he intended to stay in Jerusalem permanently, if the Lord was pleased to allow him, so as to preach Christian doctrine to the infidel (probably Jews as well as Muslims), this, even though European Christians had long found such missionary work to be not particularly fruitful.[iii] There is clearly a penitential streak to Ignatius’s intentions at this stage and so perhaps we should also allow for the possible presence of a darker scenario: a veiled desire here to win martyrdom. We are reminded of the martyrs of Córdoba, a group consisting principally of Franciscan friars who, in spite of St Francis’ directive to live as silent witness among the Muslims, had sought to goad their Muslim governors into executing them by making overtly blasphemous statements about Muhammad. It’s a repeated trope in the early Middle Ages and it is possible that Ignatius felt himself drawn to act after their example.

Whatever Ignatius was up to, this pilgrimage project came to encapsulate his self-understanding, certainly for the first few years after his conversion and, arguably, for the rest of his life; moreover, it gave him the epithet of ‘the Pilgrim’ which he uses in his Autobiography to designate himself in the third person. When he finally made it to the Holy Land in 1523, he desired to remain there but the Provincial of the Franciscans told him that others in the past who had had the same idea had either died or ended up in a Turkish prison. Ignatius was stubborn. The Franciscan, knowing trouble when he saw it, threatened him with excommunication and so the Basque Pilgrim finally relented. But the longing to return to and remain in Jerusalem was strong enough in Ignatius’s heart that it survived fifteen years of studies and apostolic activities; for when as late as 1538 he finally managed to assemble the group of Companions who would go on to form the core of the new Society of Jesus, he was still intent on their heading back to the Holy Land. It was only the impossibility of travelling that year, thanks to the activity of the Turks themselves, which led him finally to give up on Jerusalem and turn his sights to Rome.

It was a fateful shift. Gradually, the dream of Jerusalem would be side-lined and a new apostolic orientation would move centre stage. Italy, as Pope Paul III put it, would be Ignatius’s Jerusalem. And so it was that the young Jesuit order placed itself at the disposal of the universal Church directly under the Roman Pontiff where it would be best placed to meet the various needs that would present themselves. ‘The infidel’ still manages an appearance in the ‘Formula of the Institute’ which founds the Society of Jesus but it looks like an afterthought.  So much, you might think, for Ignatius’s apostolate to the Muslims…

There are good reasons, nevertheless, for believing that Islam continued to haunt Ignatius’s understanding of his calling. A curious incident early on in the pilgrimage narrative gives us a clue. It is an encounter between the Pilgrim and a Moor whom he meets as he makes his way through the Spanish countryside. Here is how he tells the story with hindsight in his Autobiography:

As he continued on his way a Moor riding on a mule caught up with him, and in their conversation they began to speak about our Lady. The Moor said that it certainly seemed to him that the Virgin had conceived without the aid of man, but he could not believe that in giving birth she remained a virgin. To substantiate his opinion, he offered the natural reasons that occurred to him. Though the pilgrim countered with many arguments he could not alter the Moor’s opinion. The Moor then went on ahead in great haste so that he lost sight of him; being left behind, he reflected on what took place between him and the Moor. Various emotions welled up in him and he became disturbed in soul, thinking that he had failed to do what he should have done. Filled with anger against the Moor and thinking that he had done wrong in allowing the Moor to utter such things about our Lady, he concluded that he was obliged to restore her honour. He now desired to search out the Moor and strike him with his dagger for all that he had said. This conflict in his desires remained with him for some time, but in the end he was still uncertain for he did not know what was required of him.

As well as giving a precious insight into Christian-Muslim relations in the early sixteenth century, this cameo tells us much about how Ignatius looked back in later life over the winding journey that had brought him to Rome. He wants his readers to be shocked by the spiritual ineptitude which characterised his early years. His confusion is resolved in rather a worrying manner: he leaves it to his mule to decide whether or not to take a human life. The sage beast, seemingly much more attuned to the promptings of the Spirit than the saint-to-be, rejects the path of violence and the rest, as they say, is history. What is significant for our purposes is that Ignatius’s story suggests an association in his mind between startling spiritual immaturity and a violent, confrontational approach to Muslims. He may not have drawn any solid conclusions about what a more mature response might look like but the doubt must have niggled.

Ignatius definitely did not give up on his ideas of a mission to Muslims, even if they take a back seat: during his tenure as General he set up a Casa dei catechumeni in Rome for Jews and Muslims wanting to convert to Christianity, an Arabic-speaking house in Messina, a college for the study of Arabic in Monreale and a study programme in Islamics in Malta. He had further plans for projects aimed at the mission to Muslims in Beirut, Cyprus and Djerba in modern Tunisia.

We also have two letters, written in August 1552 by his secretary, Juan de Polanco, to Jerónimo Nadal, in which Ignatius advocates the raising of a European fleet to fight off the Ottoman Turks. As Philip Endean points out, even if the older Ignatius had learned to be suspicious of his earlier, irascible impulses towards a Muslim, still, when it comes to thinking of the Turks, it is purely as an

enemy to be conquered, the enemy menacing Christendom. Any full statement of mission at the frontiers had to include them, but in immediate practice they were simply an unknown and destabilising threat, one perhaps that it was often impolite to name.[iv]

A Challenging Legacy

Ignatius’s Islamic itinerary leaves us with bewildering questions rather than a coherent vision and it may or may not be significant that all these grand endeavours vis-à-vis the Muslims either did not get off the ground in the first place or did not last. If there is, indeed, a palpable sense of unresolved business here, Islam had, nevertheless, lodged itself as a constituent part of the Jesuits’ DNA, as we can see with the benefit of hindsight. For Ignatius’s sons (along with members of other religious orders, not least the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the White Fathers) have demonstrated consistent and persistent interest in the Muslim world.

Jesuits were present in Istanbul by 1582 and by 1650 had set up a presence in Izmir, Aleppo, Damascus, Sidon and Lebanese Tripoli. Their most iconic engagement with the Muslim world was the series of missions sent to the court of the Mogul Emperor Akbar in late sixteenth century India. Fr Jerome Xavier (1549-1617), the great-nephew of St Francis Xavier, was to be the principal protagonist in a bold engagement with Persian-speaking Islam. His most significant literary work was an explanation of Christianity aimed at the Emperor and other Muslims, the so-called Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-Quds) (1602).

Actually meeting Muslims in their own countries may not instantly have changed the way Jesuits thought theologically about Islam but it did help them slowly to develop an accurate understanding of the religion rather than rely on the polemics and distortions which had been the medieval default position. And that did bear fruit quite quickly: back in the Jesuit colleges of Europe, lessons on Islam were an integral part of Antonio Possevino’s great Ratio Studiorum (1593), a standard text which deals with Islam at some length and in a surprisingly sympathetic manner.

For most of their history, Jesuits were not allowed to converse about matters religious with Muslims in Muslim-majority countries for fear that in doing so they might jeopardise their freedom to act in those territories. This did not prevent them from chatting to them on their holidays. Tirso González (1624-1705), a future Jesuit General himself, wrote his Manductio ad conversionem mahumetanorum out of his personal experience preaching to Muslims in the coastal towns of Spain during his vacation. A huge volume at nearly 900 pages, it shows a surprisingly accurate knowledge of Islam, of typical Muslim objections to Christianity, of tafsir (Qur’anic commentaries) and hadith. For a polemical text it is also disarmingly sympathetic to Islamic beliefs and practices.

A French Jesuit, Michel Nau (1633-1683) had travelled to the Holy Land and engaged in conversation with Muslims there. His Religio christiana contra Alcoranum per Alcoranum pacifiche defensa ac probate stands out from similar texts as a refreshing defence of respectful interreligious encounter. Written as a fictional dialogue, it assumes a startlingly modern mood of respect, humility and friendship. Perhaps such openness is down to the fact that he was operating outside Europe and knew he could not proselytise openly. More likely, it is part of that Jesuit tradition of generous engagement with the religious other that can be found in a number of early Jesuits, including Ignatius’s Letters, the ministry of St Pierre Favre to European Protestants, and the approach advocated at various times by Jerónimo Nadal and Diego Laínez. The denouement of Nau’s dialogue must have been shocking at a time when Christianity thought of itself as being in the ascendant: the Muslim protagonist agrees that Christianity is a legitimate expression of monotheism (no mean concession given traditional Muslim hostility to the doctrine of the Trinity) but he does not accept Christianity as the only way to salvation and refuses to convert.

A moment of great significance in the evolution of the Jesuit mission to Muslims occurs in 1937 when Fr General Ledochowski sends a letter to Jesuits around the globe appealing for a new generation of missionaries to be trained with the explicit task of converting the Muslim world. Ledochowski was a strong personality of markedly right wing views and his letter is far from betokening an enlightened vision; during his time as General, he seems to have been behind a move to bolster anti-Semitic sentiment in Rome. Behind his letter can be traced the influence of an energetic Frenchman, Christophe de Bonneville, regional superior in Egypt at a time when the domination of that great Muslim country by European powers seemed to open up new missionary possibilities. The idea of Jesuits explicitly setting out to convert Muslims in Muslim-majority lands represented a fundamental break with previous practice.

This opportunistic ploy, which relied on raw European power, never took off in the way Ledochowski had intended, thwarted by the outbreak of war. By the time the dust had settled, the world had moved on. Newly independent Muslim-majority nations, having flung off the yoke of their former colonial masters, would make such blatant missionary work all but impossible; already in the offing was a freshly assertive Islam. As things turned out, the one practical outcome of the General’s letter was the establishment of a course in Islamics at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.

But Ledochowski’s idea of training a generation of Jesuits as specialists in Islam lingered on, even if the style of their engagement would turn out not to be polemically confrontational but dialogical. A group of inspiring Catholics would now come to the fore whose example instilled into this new generation a genuine desire to study the Islamic tradition in depth: the Cistercian Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), the great French Islamicist, Louis Massignon (1883 – 1962) and the Spanish priest and expert in Islamic spirituality, Miguel Asín Palacios (1871-1944).

By the latter half of the twentieth century, the fruits of this new engagement were already palpable. Some Jesuits had studied Sufism. Paul Nwyia’s work on the mystic Ibn Abbād of Ronda stands out as a fine example, consummated in a remarkable book on Qur’anic exegesis and the language of mysticism, published in 1969. Still very much alive is an Australian Jesuit, Paul Jackson, who has spent the latter half of his life in India working on the letters of a Sufi saint, Sharfuddin Ahmed Yahya Maneri, whose splendid shrine can be seen in Biharsharif.

Others have explored the question of the reform of modern Islam. The German scholar, Christian Troll, was inspired by a plea from a Dutch Jesuit, J.J. Houben, calling for Islamic renewal and suggesting that Catholics were in a position to help. His experience of the Second Vatican Council’s inner tensions between conservatives and reformers led him to look at the inner dynamics at work in the Muslim world. Troll’s book on the Indian reformer, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, remains the standard text on his theology. Alongside him is an Egyptian Jesuit, Samir Khalil Samir, who has worked for decades on the patrimony of Eastern Christianity and so finds himself regularly writing about Islam with a particular concern for its engagement with modern values.

There are experts, too, in dialogue with Muslims. I think of Thomas Michel, an American Jesuit who worked for many years in Indonesia before being sent to work at the Curia of Pope St John Paul II, the Pontiff who did more than any other to build bonds of friendship between the Church and Muslims. Then there is Daniel Madigan, another Australian, whose interest in Islam started during his time in Pakistan. He pursued an interest in Qur’anic studies and taught at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome for some time, and now teaches at Georgetown University in the States. From there, he directs a uniquely fruitful dialogue: an annual series of encounters between Muslim and Christian scholars called ‘Building Bridges’. Felix Körner, a German Jesuit, took over Madigan’s work with Muslims at the Gregorian and has published books on Qur’anic exegesis and Christian approaches to Islam.

Finally, and with particular gratitude, I want to mention a remarkable Italian Jesuit, Paolo Dall’Oglio. Un unabashed admirer of Islam, he took the highly unusual step for a Jesuit of founding a monastery, Deir Mar Musa in Syria, as a place to live out a radical vision of hospitality at the service of Christian-Muslim encounter in the Middle East. Paolo was profoundly involved in the life of that latterly tormented country to the point that, during the outbreak of its civil war, he tried to negotiate with a then little-known group of Islamist extremists, ISIL. He was taken prisoner by them on 29 July 2013 and his fate is still unknown. Whether he is dead or alive, his story, I am convinced, is not yet over.

Today, there are some thirty or forty Jesuits around the world with advanced training of one sort or another in Islamics. Ignatius would surely be pleased, recognising that, after some 500 years, we are now rather better equipped than he was to accomplish a task that moved and inspired him. Where is the journey taking us? Who knows? We are no more able than Ignatius was in his day to escape the horizons of our time and to glimpse the possibilities that history will surely unfold. No matter; like him we try to discern the promptings of the Spirit day by day and follow them faithfully.

And the Spirit is key here at another level. Had he been around to celebrate his half millennium, I feel sure Ignatius would have sensed in Pope St John Paul II’s Redemptoris Missio (1990) a supremely Ignatian intuition but applied in a way Ignatius’s age would never have allowed:

The Spirit manifests himself in a special way in the Church and in her members. Nevertheless, his presence and activity are universal, limited neither by space nor time. […] The Spirit's presence and activity affect not only the individuals but also society and history, peoples, cultures and religions. Indeed, the Spirit is at the origin of the noble ideals and undertakings which benefit humanity on its journey through history.[v]

This is a profoundly healthy point of departure for the encounter with Islam he always sought but never achieved. Let’s hope that on this, his feast day, gratified to find his sons applying their hearts and minds to his great dream, he continues to support them with the prayers of a great and holy founder.

Damian Howard SJ is a lecturer at Heythrop College, University of London and a member of the editorial board of Thinking Faith.

Author’s note: I am grateful to Philip Endean SJ for advice and material for this article.

 

[i] See his “Admonition to prayer against the Turks” of October 1541. For more on Luther and Islam, see Mark U. Edwards, Luther’s Last Battles: politics and polemics 1531-46, Leiden: Brill, 1983, pp.97-114.

[ii] Another source suggests that the idea came to him later on in Barcelona. See Antonio Albuquerque, Diego Laínez S.J. Primer Biógrafo de San Ignacio, Bilbao: Mensajero/Sal Terrae, 2005, p.150.

[iii] This is not stated in the official Autobiography but in sketches made by Laínez and Polanco. See Albuquerque, pp.151-2.

[iv] “Ignatius and the Turks. Two Letters from 1552”, The Way, 211 (July 2006): 363-78. Available online at  http://www.theway.org.uk/Back/453Ignatius.pdf [consulted 2nd June 2016]

[v] Redemptoris Missio 28. Emphasis added.

https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/ignatius-loyola-apostle-muslims

Ignatius Loyola, a Catholic Priest, theologian and founder of the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church in the 16th Century, said, among his many inspiring sayings, “Go forth and set the world on fire."

Inferno (Italian: [iɱˈfɛrno]; Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno describes Dante's journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen".[1] As an allegory, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul toward God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.[2]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)

Fire as the agent of Truth

Asha Vahishta is closely associated with fire. Fire is "grandly conceived as a force informing all the other Amesha Spentas, giving them warmth and the spark of life."[27] In Yasht 17.20, Angra Mainyu clamours that Zoroaster burns him with Asha Vahishta. In Vendidad 4.54-55, speaking against the truth and violating the sanctity of promise is detected by the consumption of "water, blazing, of golden color, having the power to detect guilt."

This analogy of truth that burns and detecting truth through fire is already attested in the very earliest texts, that is, in the Gathas and in the Yasna Haptanghaiti. In Yasna 43–44, Ahura Mazda dispenses justice through radiance of His fire and the strength of aṣ̌a. Fire "detects" sinners "by hand-grasping" (Yasna 34.4). An individual who has passed the fiery test (garmo-varah, ordeal by heat), has attained physical and spiritual strength, wisdom, truth and love with serenity (Yasna 30.7). Altogether, "there are said to have been some 30 kinds of fiery tests in all."[28] According to the post-Sassanid Dadestan i denig (I.31.10), at the final judgement a river of molten metal will cover the earth. The righteous, as they wade through this river, will perceive the molten metal as a bath of warm milk. The wicked will be scorched. For details on aṣ̌a's role in personal and final judgement, see aṣ̌a in eschatology, below.

Fire is moreover the "auxiliary of the truth," "and not only, as in the ordeal, of justice and of truth at the same time."[11] In Yasna 31.19, "the man who thinks of aṣ̌a, [...] who uses his tongue in order to speak correctly, [does so] with the aid of brilliant fire". In Yasna 34-44 devotees "ardently desire [Mazda's] mighty fire, through aṣ̌a." In Yasna 43–44, Ahura Mazda "shall come to [Zoroaster] through the splendour of [Mazda's] fire, possessing the strength of (through) aṣ̌a and good mind (=Vohu Manah)." That fire "possesses strength through aṣ̌a" is repeated again in Yasna 43.4. In Yasna 43.9, Zoroaster, wishing to serve fire, gives his attention to aṣ̌a. In Yasna 37.1, in a list of what are otherwise all physical creations, aṣ̌a takes the place of fire.

Asha Vahishta's association with atar is carried forward in the post-Gathic texts, and they are often mentioned together. In Zoroastrian cosmogony, each of the Amesha Spentas represents one aspect of creation and one of seven primordial elements that in Zoroastrian tradition are the basis of that creation. In this matrix, aṣ̌a/arta is the origin of fire, Avestan atar, which permeates through all Creation. The correspondence then is that aṣ̌a/arta "penetrates all ethical life, as fire penetrates all physical being."[12]

In the liturgy Asha Vahishta is frequently invoked together with fire. (Yasna l.4, 2.4, 3.6, 4.9, 6.3, 7.6, 17.3, 22.6, 59.3, 62.3 etc.). In one passage, fire is a protector of aṣ̌a: "when the Evil Spirit assailed the creation of Good Truth, Good Thought and Fire intervened" (Yasht 13.77)

In later Zoroastrian tradition, Asha Vahishta is still at times identified with the fire of the household hearth.

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

The Knight’s Templar was expelled from the Papacy in 1312 by Pope Clement V and Philip IV of France. The few Templars who escaped went to the powerful kingdom of Aragon and became known as the Order of the Calatrava, who would later align with the the Montessa. In 1534, a Spanish nobleman by the name of Ignatius Loyola would revive the Templars and call them the "Society of Jesus." Loyola was a Templar, and a member of a secret society called the "Alumbrados."  The third Superior General and co-founder of the order was Francis Borgia. The Borgia bloodline is part of the notorious "Black Nobility" which dates back to the ancient Ptolemaic period in history."

Exposing the Jesuits and the Papacy: The Jesuits are the revived Knights Templar (jesuitinquisition.blogspot.com)

http://jesuitinquisition.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-jesuits-are-revived-knights-templar.html

"The Order of Calatrava (Spanish: Orden de Calatrava, Portuguese: Ordem de Calatrava) was one of the four Spanish military orders and the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26, 1164. Most of the political and military power of the order had dissipated by the end of the 15th century, but the last dissolution of the order's property did not occur until 1838.'

"Modern TimesIn 1931, once again unilaterally, the Second Spanish Republic suppressed the Spanish Orders. To survive, they had to resort to the Ley de Asociaciones Civiles ("Law of Civil Associations"), leading a precarious existence until the Concordat of 1953 recognized the Priory. Afterward, by the papal bull Constat militarium, the Priory was reduced to a mere title of the Bishop of Ciudad Real.In 1980, upon request by his august father, who was appointed Dean President of the Council, King Juan Carlos I by royal initiative caused the rebirth of the Orders. Under the Apostolic Pastoral Tertio millennio adveniente, the Spanish Orders began their renewal in 1996.Today, the aim of the Spanish Orders is basically the same as they had when founded: the defense of the Catholic faith. The sword has been put aside, but their doctrine, example, self-sanctification, and divine worship remain active, aside from their cultural and social activities.Their two hundred and fifty members guard the spirit and life of the Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara, and Montesa under their Grand Master, King Felipe VI, and the Real Consejo de las Órdenes (Royal Council of the Orders) presided over by his Royal Highness Pedro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria.[4]The Swiss luxury watchmaker Patek Philippe took the cross of the order in 1887 and established it as its company logo as a tribute to the knights, which remains until today.[5][6]""

Order of Calatrava - Wikipedia

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

The Oculus was positioned as part of the World Trade Center masterplan by Daniel Libeskind and designed by SANTIAGO CALATRAVA. The structure’s white metal-clad steel ribs reach up and out in a monumental move symbolic of a hand releasing a dove.The structure's orientation serves as a lasting reminder of the attacks of September 11, 2001. It is in alignment with the sun’s solar angles on each September 11, from 8:46 am, when the first plane struck, until 10:28 am, when the second tower collapsed. Its central skylight fits this alignment and washes the Oculus floor with a beam of light."

World Trade Center Oculus

50 Church Street New York, NY 10007

Oculus Transportation Hub | World Trade Center (officialworldtradecenter.com)

https://www.officialworldtradecenter.com/en/local/learn-about-wtc/oculus-transportation-hub.html

Eataly NYC Downtown - Italian restaurant

101 Liberty St

New York, NY 10007

Bread-themed branch of the famed Italian market, offering counters, restaurants & cooking demos.

(212) 897-2895

Closed ⋅ Opens 7 AM Sat

Eataly: authentic Italian products, restaurants, cooking classes | Eataly https://www.eataly.com/us_en

Todd Morgan Beamer was an American passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which was hijacked and crashed as part of the September 11 attacks in 2001. He was one of the passengers who attempted to regain control of the aircraft from the hijackers."

"Following this, the passengers and flight crew decided to act.[1] According to accounts of cell phone conversations, Beamer, along with Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, and Jeremy Glick, formed a plan to take the plane back from the hijackers.[10] They were joined by other passengers, including Lou Nacke, Rich Guadagno, Alan Beaven, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, Linda Gronlund, and William Cashman, along with flight attendants Sandra Bradshaw and CeeCee Lyles, in discussing their options and voting on a course of action, ultimately deciding to storm the cockpit and take over the plane.[1] Beamer told Jefferson that the group was planning to "jump on" the hijackers and fly the plane into the ground before the hijackers' plan could be followed through.[7][8] Beamer recited the Lord's Prayer and the 23rd Psalm with Jefferson, prompting others to join in. Beamer requested of Jefferson, "If I don't make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them." After this, Jefferson heard muffled voices and Beamer clearly answering, "Are you ready? Okay. Let's ROLL." These were the last words spoken by Beamer heard by Lisa Jefferson.[1][8][9]"

Todd Beamer - Wikipedia

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

Jefferson Airplane - House at Pooneil Corners - Manhattan Rooftop Concert (1968) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuwMEiNg3B8

Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams" is an assertion made by September 11th, 2001 attack conspiracy theorists that the burning fuel from crashed planes would not have been able to melt the supporting beams of the World Trade Center. The claim is widely mocked online for being based on flawed evidence."

Jet Fuel Can't Melt Steel Beams | Know Your Meme

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/jet-fuel-cant-melt-steel-beams

Six months after the Twin Towers fell, they returned in the form of two blue beams of light illuminating the Manhattan skyline. Since then, they have lit the sky annually as a Sept. 11 commemoration known as Tribute in Light. The tradition will continue this year to remember the 14th anniversary of the attacks."

A Look at Tribute in Light | National September 11 Memorial & Museum (911memorial.org)

https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/look-tribute-light

A Blue Mass is a Mass celebrated annually throughout the United States[1] in the Catholic Church for those employed in the "public safety field" (i.e. police officers, firefighters, correctional officers, 911 operators and EMS personnel).[2] The color blue relates to the blue-colored uniforms predominantly used by these services.[3] Similar to the Red Mass, the service honors those who have died in the line of duty and those currently serving as first responders.[4] The Mass is an opportunity for the community to show gratitude to first responders and their families.[5]"

Blue Mass - Wikipedia

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

The story behind this image of slain Davis police officer Natalie CORONA

By Lisa Fernandez and KTVU Published January 12, 2019 Updated December 28, 2020 California KTVU FOX 2

DAVIS, Calif. (KTVU) - In the image, she's wearing a royal BLUE gown, carrying a black-striped American flag with a thin blue line streaked across it.

Her heels are high. Her hair is done. Her smile is beaming. And she's standing in the middle of Leesville Grade Road next to a field in Williams, Colusa County, population 21,000, in California's Central Valley, where her father was a sheriff's deputy and now a county supervisor.

It's this compelling photograph of slain Davis police officer Natalie Corona that circulated throughout the country on Friday, hours after the 22-year-old was shot to death by a suspect identified on Saturday as Kevin Douglas Limbaugh, 48. A note found on his bed inside his home, where he later killed himself, stated that he believed Davis police bombarded him with ultrasonic waves."

The story behind this image of slain Davis police officer Natalie Corona (ktvu.com)

https://www.ktvu.com/news/the-story-behind-this-image-of-slain-davis-police-officer-natalie-corona

Serge Monast (1945 – 5 or 6 December 1996[1][2]) was a Canadian investigative journalist, poet, essayist and conspiracy theorist. He is known to English-speaking readers mainly for the originating the conspiracy theory Project BLUE BEAM, which concerns an alleged plot to facilitate a totalitarian world government by destroying traditional religions and replacing them with a new-age belief system using NASA technology.[3][unreliable source?]"

Serge Monast - Wikipedia

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

SEPTEMBER 11, 1990 | CLIP OF PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ON PERSIAN GULF

George H.W. Bush describes the New World Order in his address to the US Congress on the Crisis in the Persian Gulf.

User Clip: George Bush defines the New World Order | C-SPAN.org

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4528359/user-clip-george-bush-defines-world-order

ROLLback of governments hostile to the U.S. took place during World War II (against Fascist Italy in 1943, Nazi Germany in 1945, and Imperial Japan in 1945), Afghanistan (against the Taliban in 2001), and Iraq (against Saddam Hussein in 2003). When directed against an established government, rollback is sometimes called "regime change".[2]"

Rollback - Wikipedia

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

In 1917, the Virgin appeared in Fatima. "The Mother of God" was a smashing success, playing to overflow crowds. As a result, the Socialists of Portugal suffered a major defeat. "Roman Catholics world-wide began praying for the conversion of Russia and the Jesuits invented the Novenas to Fatima which they could perform throughout North Africa, spreading good public relations to the Muslim world. The Arabs thought they were honoring the daughter of Muhammad, which is what the Jesuits wanted them to believe. "As a result of the vision of Fatima, Pope Pius XII ordered his Nazi army to crush Russia and the Orthodox religion and make Russia Roman Catholic." A few years after he lost World war II, Pope Pius XII startled the world with his phoney dancing sun vision to keep Fatima in the news. It was great religious show biz and the world swallowed it. "Not surprisingly, Pope Pius was the only one to see this vision. As a result, a group of followers has grown into a BLUE Army world-wide, totaling millions of faithful Roman Catholics ready to die for the blessed virgin. "But we haven't seen anything yet. The Jesuits have their Virgin Mary scheduled to appear four or five times in China, Russia, and major appearance in the U.S.

"What has this got to do with Islam?

Note Bishop Sheen's statement: "Our Lady's appearances at Fatima marked the turning point in the history of the world's 350 million Muslims. After the death of his daughter, Muhammad wrote that she "is the most holy of all women in Paradise, next to Mary."

"He believed that the Virgin Mary chose to be known as Our Lady of Fatima as a sign and a pledge that the Muslims who believe in Christ's virgin birth, will come to believe in His divinity.

"Bishop Sheen pointed out that the pilgrim virgin statues of Our Lady of Fatima were enthusiastically received by Muslims in Africa, India, and elsewhere, and that many Muslims are now coming into the Roman Catholic Church."

How the Vatican created Islam (remnantofgod.org)

http://www.remnantofgod.org/books/docs/how-the-vatican-created-islam.pdf

The Shining (1980) - Come Play With Us Scene (2/7) | Movieclips

Movieclips

The Shining movie clips: http://j.mp/1CPAvTw

BUY THE MOVIE: http://bit.ly/2cb9VRg

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CLIP DESCRIPTION:

While exploring the hotel, Danny (Danny Lloyd) encounters the ghosts of the murdered Grady twins.

FILM DESCRIPTION:

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" -- or, rather, a homicidal boy in Stanley Kubrick's eerie 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel. With wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and psychic son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow, frustrated writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker at the opulently ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel so that he can write in peace. Before the Overlook is vacated for the Torrances, the manager (Barry Nelson) informs Jack that a previous caretaker went crazy and slaughtered his family; Jack thinks it's no problem, but Danny's "shining" hints otherwise. Settling into their routine, Danny cruises through the empty corridors on his Big Wheel and plays in the topiary maze with Wendy, while Jack sets up shop in a cavernous lounge with strict orders not to be disturbed. Danny's alter ego, "Tony," however, starts warning of "redrum" as Danny is plagued by more blood-soaked visions of the past, and a blocked Jack starts visiting the hotel bar for a few visions of his own. Frightened by her husband's behavior and Danny's visit to the forbidding Room 237, Wendy soon discovers what Jack has really been doing in his study all day, and what the hotel has done to Jack.

CREDITS:

TM & © Warner Bros. (1980)

Cast: Danny Lloyd, Lisa Burns, Louise Burns

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Producers: Robert Fryer, Jan Harlan, Mary Lea Johnson, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Richards

Screenwriters: Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMbI7DmLCNI

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid0or31TYjqAnA53SUMhvc8JNymVX3xCk2mwePpoSnBiE1igivVp1JbSq5UCxhKwdFSl

Half-Life: Blue Shift is an expansion pack for the first-person shooter video game Half-Life (1998). It was developed by Gearbox Software and published by Sierra On-Line. Blue Shift was the second expansion for Half-Life, originally intended as part of a Dreamcast port of Half-Life. Although the Dreamcast port was cancelled, the Windows version was released as a standalone product on June 12, 2001. It was released on Steam on August 24, 2005.

As with Gearbox's previous expansion pack, Opposing Force (1999), Blue Shift returns to the setting and events of Half-Life, but portrays the story through the eyes of another character. Players control security guard Barney Calhoun, employed by the Black Mesa Research Facility, who must fight his way to safety during an alien invasion. Blue Shift also includes a graphics pack that upgrades the Half-Life models and textures.

Blue Shift received mixed reviews. Many reviewers were critical of the short length and lack of new content, although the new graphics were praised.

Gameplay

As an expansion pack for Half-Life, Blue Shift is a first-person shooter. The overall gameplay of Blue Shift does not significantly differ from that of Half-Life: players are required to navigate through the game's levels, fight hostile non-player characters and solve a variety of puzzles to advance.[1] The game continues Half-Life's methods of an unbroken narrative. The player sees everything through the first-person perspective of the protagonist, and remains in control of the player character for almost all the game. Story events are conveyed through the use of scripted sequences rather than cut scenes. Progress through the game's world is continuous; although the game is divided up into chapters, the only significant pauses are when the game needs to load the next part of an environment.[1]

The player battles through the game alone, but is occasionally assisted by friendly non-player characters. Security guards and scientists will occasionally help the player in reaching new areas and convey relevant plot information. Blue Shift also includes a substantial section dedicated to keeping a major character in the story safe from enemy characters, and escorting him to a specific location.[2] A selection of enemies from Half-Life populate the game, including alien creatures such as headcrabs and Vortigaunts. The player also encounters human opponents in the form of a detachment of US Marines who have been sent to eliminate the alien threat and silence any witnesses.[3] Blue Shift does not elaborate on the storyline in Opposing Force, the preceding expansion pack, and no enemy characters or weapons introduced in it appear in the game. The player is instead given access to a limited selection of Half-Life's original weaponry.[2]

Synopsis

Setting

Blue Shift is set in the same location and time frame as that of Half-Life, taking place at a remote New Mexico laboratory called the Black Mesa Research Facility. In Half-Life, the player takes on the role of Gordon Freeman, a scientist involved in an accident that opens an interdimensional portal to the borderworld of Xen, allowing the alien creatures of Xen to attack the facility. The player guides Freeman in an attempt to escape the facility and close the portal, ultimately traveling to Xen to do so.[4] As in Opposing Force, Blue Shift shows the events of Half-Life from the perspective of a different protagonist. The player assumes the role of Barney Calhoun, a security guard working near the labs where the accident takes place. Calhoun is responsible for the preservation of equipment and materials and the welfare of research personnel, and after the accident turns Black Mesa into a warzone, he must work with Dr. Rosenberg, a high-ranking scientist involved in the experiment, to evacuate the facility.[5]

Plot

Blue Shift begins similarly to Half-Life, as Barney Calhoun rides a train through the Black Mesa research facility to reach his place of work. After reporting for duty, Calhoun is instructed to assist in maintenance on a malfunctioning elevator.[6] As Calhoun finishes repairs, however, Freeman's experiment takes place and results in a "resonance cascade", causing massive damage to the facility and teleporting alien creatures into the base. The elevator is badly damaged and fails, sending Calhoun plummeting into the depths of Black Mesa.

Calhoun regains consciousness at the bottom of the shaft and begins to fight his way to the surface to escape. Emerging near Black Mesa's classification yards, Calhoun learns that Dr. Rosenberg and his colleagues plan to escape the facility using teleportation technology.[7] After freeing Rosenberg from the captivity of the US Marines detachment sent to silence the facility, Calhoun escorts him to a decommissioned prototype teleportation laboratory, where several Black Mesa employees have already gathered. Rosenberg then teleports Calhoun to the Xen borderworld to calibrate research equipment needed to pinpoint a teleport destination outside of Black Mesa.[8] Upon his return, Rosenberg informs Calhoun that the teleporter's battery power has been exhausted, and contact has been lost with a team sent to acquire a new power cell.

Calhoun travels to the power generators on a lower level to find a fresh power cell while firefights rage between the Marines and the forces of Xen. After returning with a new power cell, Calhoun assists Rosenberg in evacuating the few surviving personnel through the teleporter. Calhoun is the last to enter the portal and as he does so, Marines breach the laboratory and fire on him, causing the teleporter to explode. As a result of the teleporter's destruction, Calhoun enters a "harmonic reflux", causing him to be rapidly teleported to a variety of locations in Xen and Black Mesa. At one location, he witnesses Freeman's capture by Marines midway through Half-Life, before eventually stabilizing at the intended teleport location with Rosenberg at the outskirts of Black Mesa, where they then escape the facility in a company SUV.[9]

Development

Blue Shift was announced in the second quarter of 2000 as part of an upcoming Dreamcast port of Half-Life.[10] While the port was developed by Captivation Digital Laboratories, Blue Shift was developed by Gearbox Software, who also developed the first Half-Life expansion, Opposing Force.[11] The game had the working title Half-Life: Guard Duty; publisher Sierra Entertainment announced the name Blue Shift on August 30, 2000. As with Opposing Force, the title has a double meaning, referring to both the blue shift light phenomenon and the name of Barney's shift.[12] The Dreamcast port would include higher detail models and textures[13] that were double the polygon count of Valve's original Half-Life models.[14]

At the European Computer Trade Show in September 2000, information about Blue Shift's story and development direction was revealed, along with a release date of November 1, 2000, for the Dreamcast version of Half-Life.[14] The port was delayed by Sierra to ensure the "high expectations of consumers" were met, anticipating release by the end of the year.[15]

On March 29, 2001, Sierra announced that Blue Shift would also be released for Windows[16] as a standalone game that would not require the original Half-Life to run.[17] The new models developed for the Dreamcast version would also be included in the PC version as the Half-Life High Definition pack, and could be applied to Half-Life and Opposing Force.[18] At the E3 2001, Gearbox announced that Blue Shift was complete[19] and exhibited a playable version.[20] It was released on June 12, 2001, in North America,[21][22] and on June 15 in Europe.[23][24] On June 16, 2001, Sierra canceled the Dreamcast port of Half-Life, citing "changing market conditions".[25] A late build of the Dreamcast version eventually leaked online, featuring complete versions of Half-Life and Blue Shift.[26]

Blue Shift and the High Definition pack were initially absent from the launch of Valve's content delivery system Steam in September 2003, despite the presence of both Half-Life and Opposing Force on the system.[27] The game was released on Steam on August 29, 2005, along with the High Definition Pack.[28] Blue Shift was also published as part of Sierra's Half-Life: Generation compilation in 2002,[29] and as part of Valve and Electronic Arts' Half Life 1: Anthology on September 26, 2005.[30]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life:_Blue_Shift

RFK Jr.’s HHS cuts include a slap in the face to 9/11 heroes

Recent dismissals leave in doubt the future of a program that administers health care support for those who developed 9/11-related medical issues.

'Bloodbath': Protesters meet Trump at every step as he butchers U.S. government agencies

05:52

April 8, 2025, 11:12 AM PDT

By Frank Figliuzzi, MSNBC Columnist

Given the sheer volume of indiscriminate firings and funding cuts under the Trump administration, it’s understandable that one such outrage would slip by us with little media attention. Yet, if the number of messages I’ve received from members of the first responder community are any indication, one particularly callous cut last week did not escape the attention of police officers, firefighters and federal agents who worked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack sites in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

The Trump administration recently fired the head of the World Trade Center Health Program, and dismissed two-thirds of the entire staff at the program’s parent agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The dismissals leave in doubt the future of the initiative that administers health care support for those who developed 9/11-related cancers, respiratory ailments and other medical issues.

First responders and investigators continue to die because of their exposure to the toxic air and materials of the 9/11 sites.

Under the direction of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. John Howard, administrator of the WTC Health Program, was let go. So too were more than 800 doctors, epidemiologists and staffers throughout NIOSH whom the WTC team relies on to research, identify and address the myriad health issues related to the rescue, recovery and evidence collection efforts at the toxic 9/11 sites. When law enforcement and rescue workers develop cancers that may stem from those efforts, the WTC unit must first certify that the illness is 9/11-related before those patients can start to receive care under the program. While the 86 members of the WTC unit appear to remain employed, their essential support network at NIOSH is mostly gone, and officials and advocates assert these cuts will cripple the program.

John Feal, a 9/11 first responder who helped lobby for passage of the James Zadroga Act that created the WTC Health Program, blasted the gutting of the program. He told the New York Daily News the cuts were “the most reckless, careless, unconscionable, disgusting, and vile act against those in the 9/11 community that has been committed since Sept. 11, 2001.”

Benjamin Chevat, executive director of Citizens for the Extension of the James Zadroga Act, who successfully fought for renewal of the act, was similarly scalding in his assessment. “These cuts to NIOSH will be devastating to the World Trade Center Health Program and must be stopped. The first step must be restoring Dr. Howard as NIOSH Director immediately,” Chevat said in a statement. He called the move “another example of chainsaw incompetence.”

Trump fired the man who likely saved his life: Former medical official

10:36

The potential loss or minimization of the WTC Health Program is no small thing. As I wrote in 2023, first responders and investigators continue to die because of their exposure to the toxic air and materials of the 9/11 sites. At least 10 times as many New York police officers (241) have died of 9/11-related illnesses than the number of officers (23) who were killed the day of the attack. Uniformed Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro, whose union represents FDNY rank-and-file firefighters, said in 2022 that he expected the number of firefighters dying of illnesses related to 9/11 to soon surpass the 343 FDNY personnel killed that day.

A similar phenomenon holds true for those who were deployed to the other crash sites. A 2021 report from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund said “more people are now believed to have died of 9/11-related illnesses than were lost on September 11, 2001.”

The impact of the HHS cuts on the health of first responders is not limited to the WTC Health Program.

The impact of the HHS cuts on the health of first responders is not limited to the WTC Health Program. NIOSH also runs a larger Center for Firefighter Safety, Health, and Well-being, which examines issues such as cancers developed by firefighters and whether firefighters’ personal protective equipment adequately safeguards them. Beyond the first responder community, NIOSH’s mission is to help protect the safety of the working public, particularly those at greatest risk such as coal miners.

The potentially devastating hit to the WTC Health Program is particularly shocking, though, not just for its lack of compassion, but also because it will most impact a voting block believed to strongly support Trump. Police unions and organizations, including the Fraternal Order of Police, publicly announced their backing for Trump in the last election. The international Association of Fire Fighters, for its part, declined to endorse a candidate after backing Joe Biden in 2020, and some individual local firefighter unions have supported Trump.

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Jessica Calarco

The president and his axe-wielding Cabinet members seem either blind to the impact of the WTC health program cuts on their own voters or they don’t care. Either way, it’s likely that many 9/11 heroes and their families will never forget that Trump abandoned them.

Frank Figliuzzi is an MSNBC columnist and Senior National Security and Intelligence Analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He was the assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, where he served 25 years as a special agent and directed all espionage investigations across the government. He is the author of "The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau's Code of Excellence."

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rfk-jr-trump-hhs-cuts-9-11-wtc-trump-newsletter-rcna200067

A generation's lullaby: JROTC cadets reflect on 9/11

Published Sept. 11, 2014

By Staff Sgt. Jarad A. Denton

501st Combat Support Wing

RAF ALCONBURY, United Kingdom --  With his blue, button-down shirt, black slacks and matching carry-on satchel, Mohammed Atta looked like a stereotypical businessman trying to catch a commuter flight at Portland International Jetport, Maine. He, and his travelling companion, Abdulaziz al-Omari, passed through security and boarded a short flight to Boston's Logan Airport, Sept. 11, 2001.

There, they connected with American Airlines Flight 11, bound for Los Angeles. It was a destination they had no intention of ever seeing.

"We have some planes," Atta said, during an accidental communication with air traffic control after he and al-Omari hijacked Flight 11. "Just stay quiet and you will be OK."

Twenty-two minutes later, at 8:46 a.m., Atta slammed the airplane into the North Tower of New York City's World Trade Center - killing himself and hundreds of people instantly, while showering the streets below with a rain of steel and concrete.

Nearly 5,000 miles away, the pandemonium in New York was playing out live on television as 3-year-old Reigha Barone, and her mother, watched.

"I was sitting in my living room as my mom and I watched the TV," said Barone, now a U.S. Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadet and senior at Alconbury High School, United Kingdom. "I remember seeing lots of smoke and these little flashes of orange and yellow light going off - I think they were explosions."

Barone said her mother, who was originally from New York, began panicking and calling friends and family to make sure they were safe. Now, 13 years later, Barone reflects on her memories of 9/11 during a remembrance ceremony at Alconbury Middle-High School.

"When I pair what I remember with what I know now, it's almost like filling in the puzzle pieces," Barone said. "I know now that all the smoke and flames was the Twin Towers, and that a terrorist group was responsible. I also know about the bravery of people who sacrificed their lives. It's really hard to think about how many people who died as a result of terrorism."

As part of a generation who primarily learned about 9/11 from school or family members, Barone and her classmates agreed that the courage of those at Ground Zero has not faded from memory.

"It's great how this whole country came together for one cause, and how we honor and respect what people did to help others that day," said James Wood, a senior and Air Force JROTC cadet at Alconbury High School. "I would like to think that if I had been at Ground Zero I would have helped where and how I could."

Wood stood in formation, along with his fellow JROTC cadets, as a student read the names of firefighters who fell that day, along with a single call to action: "remember." As a small child, Wood said his memory of that day is surprisingly vivid.

"That same day my dad was getting deployed," Wood said, speaking about his father, U.S. Navy Lt. Cdr. Jonathan Wood. "That's what I remember. We dropped him off at the harbor and my mom took me to preschool. Everybody was crying. I didn't know what had happened; I was too young to understand. But, I understand now."

As with many of his classmates, Wood said the bravery of members from the New York Police Department and Fire Department of New York is what helps sustain his memory. The students at Alconbury High School are part of a generation raised on the lullaby of heroism and gallantry that began mere seconds after Flight 11 struck the North Tower, with emergency responders rushing to the scene.

"It must have been incredibly scary," Wood said. "It was just a normal day for them until this happened. It's really incredible to look back and see that so many people came together to help one another."

Today, all that remains of the once magnificent twin towers is a memory of the heroic men and women who set aside fear and personal safety to rescue and protect others; a memory so great that it reaches higher than the monolith build overtop the ruins. Standing 1,776-feet tall, the One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. To the students at Alconbury, it and the events of that tragic day, serve as a constant reminder of the American spirit to overcome great tragedy and adversity.

"More than anything, I wish I could tell the people who sacrificed everything that day 'thank you,'" said Barone. "They saved lives that day and I have the utmost respect for each and every one of them."

Editor's Note: Excerpts from the 9/11 Memorial Timeline were used in this story. For more information, visit: http://timeline.national911memorial.org/

https://www.501csw.usafe.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/727341/a-generations-lullaby-jrotc-cadets-reflect-on-911/

Rosicrucianism is a theosophy advanced by an invisible order of spiritual knights who in spreading Christian Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Gnosis seek to enliven and to preserve the memory of Divine Wisdom, understood as a feminine flame of love called Sofia or Shekhinah, exoterically given as a fresh unfolded rose, yet, more akin to the BLUE fire of alchemy, the BLUE virgin. Rosicrucians have no organisation and there are no recognizable Rosicrucian individuals, but the order makes its presence known by leaving behind engrammatic writings in the genre of Hermetic-Platonic Christianity.1 The historical roots of Hermeticism is to be located in Ancient Egypt. Long before the rise of Christianity, Hermetic texts were structured around the belief that organisms contain sparks of a Divine mind unto which they each strive to attend. Things easily transform into others, thereby generating certain cyclical patterns, cycles that periodically renew themselves on a cosmic scale. These transformations of life and death were enacted in the Hermetic Mysteries in Ancient Egypt through the gods Isis, Horus, and Osiris. In the Alexandrian period these myths were reshaped into Hermetic discourses on the transformations of the self with Thot, the scribal god. These discourses were introduced in the west in 1474 when Marsilio Ficino translated the Hermetic Pimander from the Greek. The story of Christian Rosencreutz can be seen as a new version of these mysteries, specifically tempered by German Paracelsian philosophy on the Lion of the darkest night, a biblical icon for how the higher self lies slumbering in consciousness.2"

Rose Cross Over The Baltic

by Suzanne Ackerman

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vWI_uTVg5lzNCDm16itq-PLSavozNR_F/view?usp=sharing

Around 1530, more than eighty years before the publication of the first manifesto, the association of cross and rose already existed in Portugal in the Convent of the Order of Christ, home of the Knights Templar, later renamed Order of Christ. Three bocetes were, and still are, on the abóboda (vault) of the initiation room. The rose can clearly be seen at the center of the cross.[34][35] At the same time, a minor writing by Paracelsus called Prognosticatio Eximii Doctoris Paracelsi (1530), containing 32 prophecies with allegorical pictures surrounded by enigmatic texts, makes reference to an image of a double cross over an open rose; this is one of the examples used to prove the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross" existed far earlier than 1614.[36]"

Rosicrucianism - Wikipedia

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

“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."

Rosa jesuitica, oder, Jesuitische Rottgesellen (1620) - Google Drive

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

Pope Francis at 9/11 memorial: ‘We can never forget them’

Catherine E. Shoichet

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN

4 minute read

Updated 7:42 PM EDT, Fri September 25, 2015

New York

CNN

—

He calls his church a field hospital for the spiritually wounded. And on Friday, Pope Francis spoke to hundreds who are still trying to heal.

Praying with families of victims of the September 11 attacks at a ground zero memorial and speaking at an interfaith service, Francis offered a message of hope at a place of horror.

“The name of so many loved ones are written around the towers’ footprints. We can see them, we can touch them, and we can never forget them,” Francis said.

“Here, amid pain and grief, we also have a palpable sense of the heroic goodness which people are capable of. … Hands reached out, lives were given.

“This place of death became a place of life, too, a place of saved lives, a hymn to the triumph of life over the prophets of destruction and death, to goodness over evil, to reconciliation and unity over hatred and division,” Francis said.

On Friday, his first full day in New York and his fourth day in the United States, Francis spoke at the UN General Assembly, sang with children at a school in Harlem, rumbled through Central Park in his Popemobile and celebrated a Mass with thousands of Catholics at Madison Square Garden.

His visit to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum was billed as a moment to pause and reflect in a day packed with large events in the public eye.

‘This really is the beginning’

At a place that’s often the site of somber memorials, the arrival of Pope Francis brought a chorus of cheers and chants.

Outside the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, about 1,000 family members of victims of the 2001 terror attack greeted the Pope.

Standing steps away from where their relatives perished, they lined up along guard railings to catch a glimpse of Francis.

Some got the chance to talk with him one-on-one. Others watched from behind barriers, trying to catch his attention.

A man shouted: “Francisco! Our whole family’s here! A blessing, please!”

It wasn’t long before the crowd joined him: “Our blessing, please! Francisco! Francisco! Francisco!”

Nixia Mena-Alexis held a bouquet of yellow roses in one hand and wore a photograph of her sister pinned to her shirt.

The flowers, she said, symbolize the Catholic Church – and hope. She said she hoped to give some to the Pope and place some beside her sister’s name – one of thousands surrounding the reflecting pools at the memorial.

Diarelia Mena worked in IT for Cantor Fitzgerald. She had just turned 30 and had a 2-year-old daughter when she was killed on September 11.

“She was full of life and her laughter was contagious,” her sister said as her eyes filled with tears.

The lifelong Catholic said coming here fills her with a mix of emotions. But Mena-Alexis knew she wanted to be here when the Pope came.

“To me, he symbolizes peace, and that’s part of what we’re striving for after what happened here,” she said. “This is sacred ground, so I wanted to be present when he came.”

Jean Colaio, 50, lost her two brothers on 9/11. Both worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Being in the Pope’s presence, she said, will help heal her family.

“We were here on that day and witnessed everything and evacuated. We had our horrible experience here,” Colaio said. “And this really is the beginning. We’ve been working on our healing. But I think this really has propelled it.

“I feel close and connected to my brothers because he’s here.”

Marjorie Kane, whose father was killed on 9/11, said she felt differently after seeing the Pope than she ever had at the site.

“It’s honestly the first time I can recall being on this ground and feeling this peace and calm,” she said. “I’m usually full of such sorrow and such sadness coming here.”

Papal power

It wasn’t just Catholics who said they were inspired by the Pope’s message.

Dr. Gunisha Kaur, who offered a Sikh prayer onstage at the ceremony, is pregnant and asked the Pope to bless her baby.

Onstage, before the crowd, he placed his hand on her belly.

“That is the power of this pope, that he means something to all religions,” her husband, Simran Jeet Singh, said after the service.

Kaur said she was moved by Francis – and all the faiths that were part of the program.

“During prayers that were in languages that I don’t know, I I found myself singing along,” she said. “It really felt like we were all there praying together.”

https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/25/us/pope-francis-united-nations-friday/index.html

Pope Francis, Koran Kisser?

Fr Dwight Longenecker - published on 06/09/14

By hosting Muslim prayers in the Vatican, the pope is bound to garner some disrespect.

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Some Catholics like to slam St. John Paul II for an incident in which he showed respect to the Islamic religion by kissing the Koran. By hosting Muslim prayers in the Vatican, is Pope Francis headed for the same fate?

 

Every pope will have his critics — and no doubt some Catholics will start branding Pope Francis as a Muslim loving, Koran kissing pontiff — but the prayers for peace with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres on Pentecost Sunday should not put him in that category.

 

A headline was screaming across the Internet about the meeting of the Pope with Abbas and Peres: “For the first time Muslim prayers are held in the Vatican!” The headline made the meeting for prayer sound like the Pope was about to embrace Islam, become an Imam, and turn St. Peter’s into a mosque.

 

Not quite. The Vatican authorities are careful to explain that being together for prayer is not the same thing as praying together. “Praying together” is something people of the same faith do. When we pray together we participate in the same liturgy, united in the same beliefs. The meeting for prayer between the Pope, Peres, and Abbas was very different. They were not praying together. They were together for services of prayer in their own traditions.

 

Abbas and Peres met Pope Francis at the Casa Santa Martha and then drove together to the Vatican Gardens where the service took place. Leaders of the three religions held prayers in chronological order: first a Jewish rabbi, then the Christians, then a Muslim imam led a service. After the prayers, reading and music the leaders planted an olive tree for peace, and met privately before departing.

 

For those who are nervous about “Muslim prayers in the Vatican” it should be pointed out that the prayer service is not taking place in a Catholic Church and it is a personal initiative of Pope Francis. This was not a large, public, global interfaith act of worship.

 

The meeting for prayer between Pope Francis, Mahmoud Abbas, and Shimon Peres is a good opportunity to be reminded of the relationship between Catholicism and other religions. The simple explanation is that Catholics recognize goodness, truth, and beauty wherever they exist. We therefore acknowledge all that is beautiful, good, and true in all world religions.

 

However we do make distinctions. Because we believe the Catholic faith is the fullest understanding of man’s relationship to God, we see the other religions in a hierarchical relationship to the Catholic faith. Closest to us are the Eastern Orthodox and then other Christians who are baptized and have faith in Christ. Religions that have branched out and away from Christianity to become sects or cults may still worship God and follow Jesus Christ albeit in a gravely defective way.

 

Among the non Christian religions we recognize Islam and Judaism as having a special place. Judaism because it is the foundation and root of the Christian faith and Islam because it is another faith in the tradition of father Abraham.

 

Catholics also recognize and affirm the goodness, truth, and beauty in other world religions, while also recognizing what we see as defects and partial understandings of the fullness of God’s revelation in Christ Jesus. We recognize in the followers of other religions sincere searching for God.

 

This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church insists that while we recognize and affirm what is good in other religions we also remember the missionary mandate — that Catholics are to engage with believers in other religions in a positive way, but also with the intent of sharing the abundant life that Jesus Christ has to offer, leading eventually to their baptism and faith in Christ.

 

Pope Francis’s invitation to pray with Mahmoud Abbas and Shimon Peres shows the openness that all Catholics should show to those of other religions. To affirm and accept others is not the same thing as condoning everything they do or validating everything they believe. Instead it shows the open attitude that Christ the Lord, remembering that he came not to condemn the world, but to seek and to save that which was lost.

Fr. Dwight Longenecker is the author of The Romance of Religion: Fighting for Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.

https://aleteia.org/2014/06/09/pope-francis-koran-kisser

POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE WORK OF THE CIA

Document Type:

CREST

Collection:

General CIA Records

Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):

CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210004-3

Release Decision:

RIPPUB

Original Classification:

K

Document Page Count:

1

Document Creation Date:

December 22, 2016

Document Release Date:

September 2, 2010

Sequence Number:

4

Case Number:

Publication Date:

May 20, 1981

Content Type:

OPEN SOURCE

File:

Attachment Size

PDF icon CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210004-3.pdf 98.1 KB

Body:

STAT Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210004-3 MINNESOTA DAILY 20 May 1981 Pope John Paufli. and the wore By Harold H. Dorland border. ` ... ..,._ The pope's next "crime" was his speaking out against the rising probability of nuclear war. Just recently he visited Hiroshima and Nagasa ki. Although he did not explicitly direct his con- cern to the U.S. government, he was, in effect, saying to us, "Do not start a nuclear war.. -While on the Asian trip, the pope also lectured Philippine President Marcos about his domestic- authoritarianism. Here is Marcos doing precise ly what the CIA wants done within the United' Statesand in every other "non-communist'-: nation in the world, and the pope lectures him,., ,against it. ii1'` *a: Finally, we oughtto weigh carefully the role of .4. 'the Catholic Church in stopping cold the recent` ,beginnings of a Vietnam-type venture in El Saf valor-one undertaken by the CIA. White most t of us assumed the moving force in reversing El Salvador was the U. S. Catholic Church under - .the very able leadership of Minnesota's own- `Archbishop Roach, the pope himself may have, played a private role, which I and others hadn't noticed, but which the CIA may have been cog- nizant of. Thirty-six years ago, the CIA took up the "anti- communist" campaign that Hitler "bungled" and that was relinquished by British intelli-:. genre. Here we are, hundreds of CIA political assassinations later, in the worst crisis America has been in. We simply have to stop CIA assas sinations and begin to solve our domestic and . . international political problems using the tools of democracy and maturity: negotiation, bar- - gaining, campaigning, debating policies, etc- Who.will stop CIA political assassinations?Ypu` and 1, and nobody else. The way to achieve this k..is to force. the realityof, assassinations out into- the open. If we citizens fail to do this, we'll run the risk of total nuclear war up to near certainty. . Meanwhile,.wwe'II continue suffering as our economy worsens and as the forces of covert authoritarianism tighten in America. Maybe-,-'_: Europe-will come to believe ikmust war against. America to put an end to the virulent fascism that migrated from Germany to the United -States in 1945. % One prediction I can safely make is thatweare going to see hundreds more CIA political assas-, sinations, domestic andforeign: TheCIAwill riot stop killing until Americans stop the CIA. - The attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul is - probably the work of the CIA and its rightist as- sociates. From what I can tell, the CIA has de- cided to go on a rampage of political assassinations here. in the United States and overseas. What-I want to do in this article is point out to readers what the possible political motives are The CIA is now in fhe control-of a group of ex- tremely paranoid right-wingers who believe that we must fight the Soviet Union in an all-out showdown-the sooner the better. Within the last seven days, we've witnessed Vice President - (Mr. CIA). Bush attack Cuba in some of the harshest language used by an American poli- tician since the Bay of Pigs. Meanwhile, Secre- tary of State Haig (long known as a "CIA general" when he was in the Pentagon and on Nixon's staff) is fanning the flames of hatred against the Soviet Union in speech after speech. Domestically, the economy is rushing toward complete collapse, and even while this is hap- - pening; Reagan et al: are pushing for extremely. large increases in military and CIAspending. Europe, meanwhile, is pushing far ahead of the United States. It is becoming unified, its wealth is growing, it is going socialist, and it is expand- ing its democratic base. , But why would the CIA try to assassinate the pope? A couple of years ago the CIA assassi nated Aldo Mora in Italy because he was "guilty" of reaching an agreement with the Ital- ian communists. The agreement was to bring them into the Italian government (for the first time). Very soon this issue of official communist participation in the executive offices of a NATO government will again arise in France, with the election of Socialist Mitterrand as president. In the eyes of the CIA, what political crimes is the pope guilty of? First of all, he played a very significant role in preventing a Soviet invasion -' of Poland. The CIA has long wanted the USSR to march in, perhaps to start an all-out war be- ?'tween the Soviets and the West. I suspect we'll soon begin to learn of numerous "dirty tricks" the CIA has been carrying out in Poland to suck the Soviets into precipitous action. And we may also find out that if it had not been for the pope, the Soviets would have moved across they Harold H. Dorland was a member of the..;' board of directors of the Washington.. based Committee to Investigate Assassi=- nations and was president of the Minna: sofa Action Council for Political "Assassination Disclosures.. .w:., Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210004-3

https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00806r000100210004-3

THE SALESMAN AND A CHEMIST

WHO BECAME POPE

"Karol Wojtyla - Pope John Paul II

WHEN HE WAS A BOY

WHEN HE WAS A YOUNG MAN

WHEN HE WAS AN OLD MAN AND A POPE

Billions of people around the world are practically unaware that Karol Wojtyla who became Pope John Paul II representing the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world with headquarter at Vatican Roma was a Salesman of the I.G. Farben (German Chemical Company).

RECORD OF PAST EMPLOYMENT: John Paul II 1978-2005 "In the early 1940's, the I.G. Farben Chemical Company employed a Polish salesman who sold cyanide to the Nazis for use in Auschwitz. The same salesman also worked as a chemist in the manufacture of the poison gas. This same cyanide gas along with Zyklon B and Malathion was used to exterminate millions of Jews and other groups. Their bodies were then bumed to ashes in the ovens. After the war the salesman, fearing for his life, joined the Catholic Church and was ordained a priest in 1946. One of his closest friends was Dr. Wolf Szmuness, the mastermind behind the Nov./78 to Oct./79 and March/80 to Oct/81 experimental hepatitis B vaccine trials conducted by the Center for Disease Control in New York, San Francisco and four other American cities that loosed the plague of AIDS upon the American people. The salesman was ordained Poland's youngest bishop in 1958. After a 30-day reign his predecessor was assassinated and our ex-cyanide gas salesman assumed the papacy as POPE JOHN PAUL II." - William Cooper, BEHOLD A PALE HORSE, (Light Technology Publishing, 1991), pp. 89-90.

"In his book 'Behold a Pale Horse,' former US Naval Intelligence Officer William Cooper relates a story associated with the IG Farben Chemical Company. In the early 1940s, that company employed a Polish chemist and salesman who sold cyanide gas, Zyklon B and Malathion to the Nazis for extermination of groups of people in Auschwitz. After the war the salesman joined the Catholic Church and was ordained a priest.

In 1958 he became Poland's youngest bishop and after Pope John Paul I's mysterious death, the ex-cyanide gas salesman Karol Wojtyla was elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II in October 1978. In March 2000, he publicly apologized not for his war effort, but for the wickedness of the Christian religion. The plea for forgiveness also sought to pardon the use of 'violence in the service of truth' an often used fragile and troubling reference to the Inquisition.

https://www.herbogeminis.com/revista/IMG/pdf/the_salesman_and_a_chemist_who_became_pope.pdf

AI Overview

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The Kiss of Judas - Bible Odyssey

A "Judas kiss" refers to an act of betrayal disguised as friendship or affection. It originates from the biblical story of Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus' disciples, who identified him to his captors with a kiss, leading to his arrest. The term now symbolizes any deceitful act that appears friendly but is, in reality, harmful. 

Elaboration:

The story of Judas' kiss is recounted in the New Testament. Judas, after agreeing to betray Jesus for money, arranged with the authorities to identify Jesus with a kiss. When Judas approached Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, he greeted him with a kiss, a gesture that signaled to the authorities that Jesus was the man to be arrested. This act, performed by someone who had been close to Jesus, highlighted the hypocrisy of the betrayal and its devastating consequences. 

The phrase "Judas kiss" has become a common idiom to describe a situation where someone pretends to be friendly or supportive while secretly undermining or betraying another person. It can be applied to a variety of contexts, from personal relationships to political situations, where someone appears to be an ally but is actually working against the other's interests. 

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Mark 14

1599 Geneva Bible

14 1 The Priests’ conspiracy against Christ. 3 The woman pouring oil on Christ’s head. 12 The preparing of the Passover. 22 The institution of the Supper. 41 Christ delivered into the hands of men. 43 Judas betrayeth him with a kiss. 53 Christ is before Caiaphas. 66 Peter’s denial.

1 And [a]two days after followed the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread: and the high Priests, and Scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.

2 But they said, Not in the feast day, lest there be any tumult among the people.

3 And when he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, there came a woman having a box of ointment of Spikenard, very costly, and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

4 [b]Therefore some disdained among themselves, and said, To what end is this waste of ointment?

5 For it might have been sold for more than [c]three hundred pence, and been given unto the poor, and they murmured against her.

6 But Jesus said, Let her alone: Why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

7 [d]For ye have the poor with you always, and when ye will ye may do them good, but me ye shall not have always.

8 [e]She hath done that she could: she came aforehand to anoint my body to the burying.

9 Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done, shall be spoken of in remembrance of her.

10 ¶ [f]Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went away unto the high Priests, to betray him unto them.

11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised that they would give him money: therefore he sought how he might conveniently betray him.

12 ¶ [g]Now the first day of unleavened bread, [h]when [i]they sacrificed the [j]Passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the Passover?

13 Then he sent forth two of his disciples, and said unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.

14 And whithersoever he goeth in, say ye to the good man of the house, The master saith, Where is the lodging where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?

15 And he will show you an [k]upper chamber which is large, trimmed and prepared: there make it ready for us.

16 So his disciples went forth, and came to the city, and found as he had said unto them, and made ready the Passover.

17 ¶ And at even he came with the twelve.

18 [l]And as they sat at table and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me, which eateth with me.

19 Then they began to be sorrowful and to say to him one by one, Is it I? And another, Is it I?

20 And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve that [m]dippeth with me in the platter.

21 Truly the Son of man goeth his way, as it is written of him: but woe be to that man, by whom the Son of man is betrayed: it had been good for that man, if he had never been born.

22 And as they did eat, Jesus took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it and gave it to them, and said, Take, eat, this is my body.

23 Also he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, gave it to them: and they all drank of it.

24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of that new Testament which is shed for many.

25 Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day, that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

26 And when they had sung a Psalm, they went out to the mount of Olives.

27 ¶ [n]Then Jesus said unto them, All ye shall be offended by me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.

28 But after that I am risen, I will go into Galilee before you.

29 [o]And Peter said unto him, Although all men should be offended at thee, yet would not I.

30 Then Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, this day, even in this night before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice.

31 But he said [p]more earnestly, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee: likewise also said they all.

32 ¶ [q]After, they came into a place named Gethsemane: then he said to his disciples, Sit ye here, till I have prayed.

33 And he took with him Peter, and James, and John, and he began to be troubled, and in great heaviness,

34 And said unto them, My soul is very heavy, even unto the death: tarry here, and watch.

35 So he went forward a little, and fell down on the ground, and prayed, that if it were possible, that hour might pass from him,

36 And he said, [r]Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee: take away this cup from me: nevertheless not that I will, but that thou wilt, be done.

37 [s]Then he came, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?

38 ¶ Watch ye, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is ready, but the flesh is weak.

39 And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words.

40 And he returned, and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy: neither knew they what they should answer him.

41 And he came the third time, and said unto them, Sleep henceforth, and take your rest: it is enough: the hour is come: behold, the Son of man is delivered into the hands of sinners.

42 Rise up: let us go: lo, he that betrayeth me, is at hand.

43 [t]And immediately while he yet spake, came Judas that was one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the high Priests, and Scribes, and Elders.

44 And he that betrayed him, had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, he it is: take him and lead him away [u]safely.

45 And as soon as he was come, he went straightway to him, and said, Hail Master, and kissed him.

46 Then they laid their hands on him, and took him.

47 And [v]one of them that stood by, drew out a sword, and smote a servant of the high Priest, and cut off his ear.

48 And Jesus answered, and said to them, Ye be come out as against a thief, with swords and with staves, to take me.

49 I was daily with you, teaching in the Temple, and ye took me not: but this is done that the Scriptures should be fulfilled.

50 Then they [w]all forsook him, and fled.

51 [x]And there followed him a certain young man, clothed in [y]linen upon his bare body, and the young men caught him.

52 But he left his linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

53 So they led Jesus away to the high Priest, and to him came [z]together all the high Priests, and the Elders, and the Scribes.

54 And Peter followed him afar off, even into the hall of the high Priest, and sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire.

55 [aa]And the high Priests, and all the Council sought for witness against Jesus, to put him to death, but found none.

56 For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.

57 Then there arose certain, and bare false witness against him, saying,

58 We heard him say, I will destroy this Temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another, made without hands.

59 But their witness yet agreed not together.

60 Then the high Priest stood up amongst them, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is the matter that these bear witness against thee?

61 But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high Priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou that Christ the son of the [ab]Blessed?

62 And Jesus said, I am he, and ye shall see the Son of man sit at the right hand of the power of God, and come in the clouds of heaven.

63 Then the high Priest rent his clothes, and said, What have we anymore need of witnesses?

64 Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be worthy of death.

65 [ac]And some began to spit at him, and to cover his face, and to beat him with fists, and to say unto him, Prophesy. And the sergeants smote him with their rods.

66 [ad]And as Peter was beneath in the hall, there came one of the maids of the high Priest.

67 And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked on him, and said, Thou wast also with Jesus of Nazareth.

68 But he denied it, saying, I know him not, neither wot I what thou sayest. Then he went out into the porch, and the cock crew.

69 Then [ae]a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them.

70 But he denied it again: and anon after, they that stood by, said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art of Galilee, and thy speech is like.

71 And he began to curse, and swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.

72 Then the second time the cock crew, and Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice, and weighing that with himself, he wept.

Footnotes

Mark 14:1 By the will of God, against the counsel of men, it came to pass that Christ should be put to death upon the solemn day of the Passover, that in all respects the truth might agree to the figure.

Mark 14:4 Rash judgments are frustrated before God.

Mark 14:5 Which is about six pounds English.

Mark 14:7 Christ suffered himself to be anointed once or twice for certain considerations: but his will is to be daily anointed in the poor.

Mark 14:8 This woman by the secret instinct of the Spirit, anointing Christ, setteth before men’s eyes, his death and burial which were at hand.

Mark 14:10 Covetousness cloaked with a zeal of charity, is an occasion to betray and crucify Christ.

Mark 14:12 Christ being made subject to the Law for us, doth celebrate the Passover according to the Law: and therewithall by a miracle showeth that notwithstanding he in the flesh shall straightway suffer, yet that he is God.

Mark 14:12 That is, upon which day, and at the evening of the same day, which was the beginning of the fifteenth, see also Matt. 26:17.

Mark 14:12 They used to sacrifice.

Mark 14:12 This is spoken thus, by the figure Metonymy, which is usual in sacraments, and by the Passover is meant the Paschal lamb.

Mark 14:15 The Greek word signifieth that part of the house that is highest from the ground, to what use soever it be put, but because they used to sup in that part of the house, they called it a supping chamber.

Mark 14:18 The figure of the law, which is by and by to be fulfilled, is abrogated: and in place thereof are put figures of the new covenant answerable unto them, which shall continue to the world’s end.

Mark 14:20 That useth to eat meat with me.

Mark 14:27 Christ foretelleth how he shall be forsaken of his, but yet that he will never forsake them.

Mark 14:29 Here is set forth in an excellent person, a most sorrowful example of man’s rashness and weakness.

Mark 14:31 That doubling of words, setteth out more plainly Peter’s vehement affirmation.

Mark 14:32 Christ suffering for us in that flesh which he took upon him for our sakes, the most horrible terrors of the curse of God, receiveth the cup at his Father’s hands, which he being just, doth straightway drink of for the unjust.

Mark 14:36 This doubling of the word was used in those days, when their languages were so mixed together: for this word, Abba, is a Syrian word.

Mark 14:37 An horrible example of the sluggishness of men, even in the disciples whom Christ had chosen.

Mark 14:43 As men did willingly spoil God their Creator of his praise in forsaking and betraying him: so Christ willingly going about to make satisfaction for this ruin, is forsaken for his own, and betrayed by one of his familiars as a thief, that the punishment might be agreeable to the sin, and we who are very traitors, forsakers, and sacrilegers might be delivered out of the devil’s snare.

Mark 14:44 So diligently, that he escape not out of your hands.

Mark 14:47 That is, Peter.

Mark 14:50 All his disciples.

Mark 14:51 Under pretence of godliness, all things are lawful to such as do violence against Christ.

Mark 14:51 Which he cast about him, when he hearing that stir in the night suddenly ran forth: whereby we may understand with how great licentiousness these villains violently set upon him.

Mark 14:53 The highest council was assembled, because Christ was accused as a blasphemer and a false prophet: for as for the other crime of treason, it was forged against him by the Priests, to enforce Pilate by that means to condemn him.

Mark 14:55 Christ, who was so innocent that he could not be oppressed, no not by false witnesses, is at the length, for confessing God to be his father, condemned of impiety before the high Priest: that we, who denied God and were indeed wicked, might be quit before God.

Mark 14:61 Of God, who is most worthy of all praise?

Mark 14:65 Christ suffering all kinds of reproach for our sakes, getteth everlasting glory to them that believe in him.

Mark 14:66 An heavy example of the frailness of man, together with a most comfortable example of the mercy of God, who giveth the spirit of repentance and faith to his elect.

Mark 14:69 If we compare the Evangelists diligently together, we shall perceive that Peter was known of many through the maiden’s report: yea, and in Luke, when the second denial is spoken of, there is a manservant mentioned, and not a maid.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2014&version=GNV

https://www.facebook.com/4williamdunn/posts/pfbid02kRPAQcY2PeL3A8t8XfkhVuybZLyBvvy5AYTRSYfTb2PPpGRzb3vtYj4MnQsDwJPJl