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13 Enigma -
Friday the 13th is a day of great
apprehension for the superstitious, but it actually has some very
lucky associations. Throughout western tradition, many stories are
told of 12 companions surrounding a central god-head figure. Robin
Hood had 12 merry men; King Arthur had 12 knights of the round
table and of course perhaps one of the most well known groups of
13, Jesus and his 12 disciples. The thirteenth man is often the
medium through which higher knowledge is imparted. But trying to
cope with consciousness on many levels and dealing with the
imbalances of the group the 13th was often subject to ruin or
death - hence the 13th is unlucky. When the great seal was
approved by the largely Masonic Continental congress in 1782, the
underlying motive for all of the 13s was to suggest that higher
consciousness was at work in the conception of the new nation.
Check out a dollar bill. 13 stars, stripes, arrows, leaves,
berries, many of the inscriptions contain 13 letters. The pyramid
has 13 rows.
Atlantis
- Over 11,000 years ago, an island nation existed in the middle of
the Atlantic Ocean and was populated by a powerful and
intellectually superior race. It was a center for trade and
commerce and the people were quite wealthy thanks to the natural
resources. The influence of this island was felt well into Europe
and Africa. This was the island of Atlantis, domain of Poseidon,
god of the sea. When Poseidon fell in love with a mortal woman,
Cleito, he created a dwelling at the top of a hill and surrounded
it with rings of water and land for her protection. She gave birth
to five sets of twin boys who ruled Atlantis. On the central hill
were two temples. One housed a giant gold statue of Poseidon
riding a chariot pulled by winged horses. Here, rulers would
discuss laws, dispense with judgments, and pay tribute to
Poseidon. To facilitate travel, a canal was cut through of the
rings of land running south to the sea. Two harvests were possible
each year and an abundance of herbs, fruits and animals, including
elephants, could be found on the island. For generations they
lived simple, virtuous lives. But greed and power corrupted them.
When Zeus saw their decline, Atlantis and its people were
swallowed by the sea. This is the story told by Plato around 360
B.C.E. and the only known reference to Atlantis. The journal
Antiquity has just published satellite photos of a region of the
southern Spanish coast that reveal features matching descriptions
made by Plato of the fabled city. Photos of a salt marsh show two
rectangular structures in the mud and parts of concentric rings
that may have surrounded them. Researchers believe the rectangular
features could be remains of the two temples described by Plato.
Plato also wrote that Atlantis was rich in copper and other
metals. Copper is found in abundance in the area.
Atmosphere
–
SpaceShipOne made history when it penetrated the Earth’s
atmosphere and entered suborbital space on Monday. The Earth's
atmosphere is made of thin layers of gases that surround the
Earth. It insulates us from the extreme temperatures in space; and
acts like a blanket keeping heat close to the planet. It also
blocks us from much of the Sun’s incoming ultraviolet radiation.
The troposphere is the lowest region in the Earth's atmosphere. It
extends from the Earth’s surface up to about 11 miles.
This is where all weather takes
place; air rises and falls. Above the troposphere is the
stratosphere, where air flow is mostly horizontal.
The stratosphere begins at 11 miles high and
and extends 31 miles above the earth's surface.
The ozone layer, a particularly
reactive form of oxygen, critical for life on earth, exists in the
upper stratosphere. This layer is primarily responsible for
absorbing the ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. On top of the
stratosphere is the mesosphere that
begins from between 31 and 50 miles above the earth's surface.
Temperatures start to drop quickly in the mesosphere as you
ascend. Above that is the
ionosphere starting at about 43-50 miles high and continues for
about 400 miles. It contains many ions and free electrons or
plasma. Sunlight hits atoms and tears away the electrons.
The ionosphere is very thin, but it
is responsible for absorbing the most photons from the Sun, and
for reflecting radio waves, making long-distance radio
communication possible. The exosphere
is the outermost layer of the Earth's atmosphere and it extends
from about 400 miles high to about 800 miles There atmospheric
pressure is very low (the gas atoms are very widely spaced) and
the temperature is very low.
The Atom - Up until the early
part of the nineteenth century it was generally thought that the
atom was the smallest constituent of matter. The word “atom” comes
from the Greek for “uncuttable”. The work of Marie Curie, Joseph
Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr and others led to the
discovery of even smaller particles: the electron, proton, and
neutron. The nucleus of the atom contains protons and neutrons,
and the electrons surround the nucleus creating the shell. The
nucleus is only 1/100,000th the diameter of the atom. Compare the
size of a baseball to that of a ball park. Nearly all the mass of
the atom is in that tiny nucleus. A billion atoms in a row would
make a line only a few centimeters long. Recent work carried out
at the sites of the largest particle accelerators has confirmed
that these three atomic particles are themselves composed of
combinations of even smaller constituents which we call “quarks.”
Murray Gel Mann took the name quark from the novel Finnegan’s Wake
by James Joyce. There are six quarks that combine to make
sub-atomic particles. They are named: up, down, charmed, strange,
top and bottom. Think of them as flavors in a cosmic ice cream
shop. To make a proton shake, you need two scoops of up and a
scoop of down. A neutron - 2 scoops of down and a scoop of up.
Bantu Creation - Every civilization or generation has attempted to answer ultimate
questions and assign order to the universe. This creation myth comes to us from
the Bantu of Africa. In the beginning the only thing that existed
was Nzame, a triple god whose other parts were Mebere, and Nkwa.
The Nzame portion created the earth and the rest of the universe
and blew life into it. The other two parts, Mebere and Nkwa, were
called to admire his work. They decided earth needed a ruler.
Initially they selected the elephant, the leopard and the monkey
but then decided to make a new creature in their image and named
him Fam or Power. Fam decided that he did not need Nzame and could
rule earth alone. This bothered Nzame so he caused lightning and
thunder to destroy the world. Fam was not killed however because
when he had been created Nzame had promised him eternal life and
Nzame never changes his mind. The earth was remade, the old one
can still be found if you dig deep enough. Nzame then created a
new Fam but one who new death named Sekume and his woman Mbongwe,
was made from a tree. These people had both a body (Gnoul) and a
soul (Nissim.) The Nissim is what gives life to the Gnoul. When
body dies the soul does not.
Buckyballs
- Buckyballs or fullerenes are named after R. Buckminster
Fuller-inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet and
cosmologist and best known for the invention of the geodesic
dome-the lightest, strongest, and most cost-effective structure
ever devised. Buckyballs are crazy molecules that look like tiny
soccer balls. They are carbon molecules made up of 60 carbon atoms
that form a hollow ball. They display some unusual qualities. Some
behave like metal, able to conduct electricity and they're very
rugged. They can survive collisions with metals and other
materials at speeds in excess of 20,000 miles an hour and could
provide the basis for new super strong yet light weight materials.
Scientists have high hopes to use them as drug-delivery systems,
components of fuel cells and as tools to clean contaminated land.
But in some recent experiments, buckyballs can also be
destructive. They steal electrons from surrounding molecules, a
process known as oxidation and a common mechanism of tissue
damage. Buckyballs were introduced in a controlled experiment to
some aquatic life. Largemouth bass were exposed to 10-liter
aquariums filled with fullerene-spiked water at concentrations of
0.5 parts per million. After 48 hours, the fish were removed and
their brains examined for lipid peroxidation, a tissue-burning
chemical reaction that toxicologists use as a standard of
biological damage. The level of brain damage was severe.
Buckyballs also caused die-offs of Daphnia, or water fleas,
crustaceans just a few millimeters long that eat algae and serve
as food for other aquatic animals. Because of their crucial role
in the food chain, Daphnia is a common test organism for aquatic
toxicity.
Buddha’s 1st Sermon
- On the Full Moon of the fifth lunar month, Theravadin Buddhists
celebrate Dhammachakka, the first teaching of the Buddha; and
Wessana, the first day of a three-month retreat during which the
Buddha realized the teaching of the eightfold path. It was out of
his own compassion for all living beings that the Buddha
propagated the Dhamma. Compassion is an important virtue for
Buddhists. Dhammachakka is the name given to Buddha's first sermon
after enlightenment and it means "The establishment of wisdom".
However, it is often referred to as the "Wheel of truth". In this
first sermon the Buddha taught us about the Four Noble Truths and
the Middle Path, or what the Buddha followed to attain
enlightenment. He gave up the extreme of wealth and luxuries. He
catered to the needs of His body rather than to the wants of His
mind. This Middle Path that leads to the end of suffering is
comprised of the Noble Eightfold Path - namely: Right
Understanding, Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Action, Right
Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right
Concentration, Following The Eightfold Noble Path leads to the
understanding of the Four Noble Truths which results in Nibbaana.
The Four Noble Truths are: 1. Dukkha - That which is
difficult to endure - suffering or dissatisfaction; 2. Cause
of Dukkha - craving and attachment; 3. End to Dukkha - Nibbaana
(no more rebirth) It is more widely known in its Sanskrit form:
nirvana; 4. The way to end Dukkha - following the Eightfold Noble
Path. Today, the Buddhists of the world accept the Dhammachakka or
the wheel of Dhamma as the symbol of the propagation of Buddhism,
a path of rational recognition of the 'non-self' components of
personality.
Cassini Mission
- Nearing the end of its seven-year, roundabout trip to Saturn,
the Cassini spacecraft has primed its engine and other systems for
a swing past one of the planet's moons and the ultimate arrival at
the ringed planet itself this month. Launched in October of 1997,
Cassini is now steering toward the small Saturnian moon of Phoebe
after a six-minute course correction last week. During that short
engine burn, Cassini used all the systems it will muster for its
orbital approach with Saturn on June 30. Mission controllers have
been practicing operations for that final orbital insertion
maneuver that will twice carry the spacecraft through the plane of
Saturn's rings. The spacecraft turns around backwards and burns
its thrust engines and that acts like a brake. Cassini should
arrive at Phoebe, a 136-mile diameter moon, on June 11. A flyby
session will bring the craft within about 1,200 miles giving
researchers their closest look at Phoebe ever. Then Cassini will
ignite its engine to make a one last course adjustment, expected
to be about a one-minute burn to properly align it for orbital
capture by Saturn on June 30. The Cassini mission is a joint
effort by NASA, the (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency, to study
Saturn's atmosphere, rings and many moons for at least four years.
The Cassini orbiter carries the European Space Agency-developed
Huygens probe to visit Titan, Saturn's largest moon and the only
satellite in the Solar System to boast an atmosphere, on Dec. 24,
2004. Saturn is very low in the WNW in twilight this week, as
shown at the top of this page. Don't miss little Mars to its upper
left.
Update
-
After a
seven-year, 2.2 billion-mile journey, the
Cassini spacecraft
will fire its engine Wednesday night to slow down, allowing itself
to be captured by Saturn’s gravity. This begins a four-year,
76-orbit tour of the giant planet and some of its 31 known moons,
including huge Titan. The European Space Agency's Huygens probe is
riding piggy-back on Cassini, and will jettison to the surface of
Saturn's largest, most mysterious moon Titan on December 24. The
frozen moon intrigues scientists because it may have many of the
chemical compounds that existed on Earth before life began.
Shortly after entering orbit, Cassini will act on its best chance
to photograph the rings that are a model of the disk of gas and
dust that initially surrounded the sun. Months before the
spacecraft Cassini was launched nearly seven years ago,
controversy surrounded the plutonium fuel that would generate
power for the spacecraft's long journey to Saturn. Critics feared
the possibility of a nuclear "meltdown" and widespread radioactive
contamination should the nuclear core of the generators fail
during launch or explode early in flight, or when Cassini swung
past Earth on its looping voyage two years later. The miniature
power plants, fueled by plutonium dioxide, are now generating 750
watts of power to run the spacecraft's 12 scientific instruments
and the radio that is beaming a stream of signals back to Earth. A
"Stop Cassini Coalition" was formed and President Bill Clinton was
urged to postpone the launch so independent scientists could
review the possibility of using solar power instead. But Cassini
is flying so far from the sun -- nearly 900 million miles away --
that it receives only 1 percent of the solar energy that reaches
Earth. The solar-powered batteries would have to be so large that
the spacecraft couldn’t get off the ground. The fuel is
plutonium-38, a form of the manmade element whose atoms decay to
yield radioactivity but cannot split to explode like plutonium-39,
which is used in atomic bombs. The plutonium's radioactive decay
produces heat, which is converted to electricity by devices called
thermoelectric converters.
Celtic Tree Month of Duir
- The Moon is humanity's oldest calendar. Evidence of ancient
people keeping time by the phases of the moon have been found
carved into rocks and cave walls all over the world. The ancient
Celts divided the year into thirteen lunar cycles (months or
moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each
moon its name. The Celts had a kinship with trees and they
believed that many trees where inhabited by spirits or had spirits
of their own. From this ancient respect for the power of trees
came the expression “knock on wood.” The Celtic Tree Month of Oak
or Duir (DOO-r) begins with the new moon today and ends on the
July new moon of the 17th. Our modern English word
"door," comes from the Gaelic word 'duir' - the word for solidity,
protection. The oak is one of the longest living trees in the
forest, often living for seventy to eighty years, even after being
struck by lightning. They can live to be 1000.
During this time of year Druids would carve a circle divided into
four parts (the symbol of earth) into an Oak Tree for protection
from lightning. Oak groves were sacred to the druids. The Druids
listened to the rustling oak leaves for omens and divinatory
messages. The midsummer fire was traditionally kindled with an Oak
log and the Yule log is made from oak. The Oak represents power,
protection, strength, endurance, triumph, dominion, prosperity,
sacrifice, guardianship, success and stability. The Oak represents
the trials in life that come with change and the process of
becoming who we are meant to be, all the while considering the
greater good and moral responsibilities we have to grow and let
grow. It is a time when the sun starts its movement back into
darkness with the upcoming Summer Solstice and is sacrificed to
darkness as we move back towards winter.
rd
"door," comes from the Gaelic
Comets -
Over 1400 comets share our sun
with us. Comets orbit the sun the same way planets do, but in
extremely elongated oval orbits and can go out to 50,000
astronomical units or AUs - the distance between the earth and sun
which is about 93 million miles. We believe comets originated in
the early days of the solar system in the outer, colder edges from
the leftover ring of debris that didn’t become planets or moons.
This ring is called the Oort Cloud. We only know the period, or
the time it takes to make a complete orbit, for about 200 of them.
Some take up to 40,000 years while others only take a few. The
“tail” everyone associates with comets is made up of tiny
particles and gases being blown off the comet head or the coma as
it approaches the sun. Some of these particles linger in the
Earth’s path until we come plodding along and encounter them with
our atmosphere. This phenomenon is a "meteor shower." The
brilliant streaks across the sky, or shooting stars, are caused by
friction when the particles hit the atmosphere and ionize the air.
The debris is usually no larger than a grain of sand, just much
denser. Comets are made of common elements found in space:
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Recent studies with
spectroscopes indicate the presence of more complex organic
molecules, such as amino and nucleic acids, or the materials of
proteins and DNA. It is an accepted fact that organic molecules
are found everywhere in the universe. Evidence of comet impacts
are everywhere in our solar system. In the summer of 1994, comet
Shoemaker Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, sending up fireballs larger
than the earth. Some scientists blame the demise of the dinosaurs
on a comet believed to have hit the earth right where the tip of
the Yucatan Peninsula sits, creating the Gulf of
Mexico. Comets are the bearers of the building blocks of life. So
the next time you look up to see a comet grace our night sky, you
may well be looking up at an ancient relative, an ancestor or
grandfather perhaps, carrying the cosmic seeds of the universe.
Cosmic
Model
- We refer to the Solar System many times during the Garden
Universe and we need to all share an idea as to how the mechanism
of the solar system works. For this we have to go to our cosmic
toy box. Take out your beach ball; you know the kind with the
different color stripes on it. Let’s let the circular patches
serve as celestial north and south and let’s all assume that there
are 12 different color stripes. We can assign the 12 signs of the
zodiac to the different patches. Take out your cosmic tape and
place an equator around the center of the beach ball. Dig around
some more and find a yellow tennis ball. We’re going to magically
suspend the tennis ball inside of the beach ball. This is going to
serve as our sun. Next we need nine marbles to represent the 9
planets. They are distributed on the plane of our tape celestial
equator and they are moving in a counterclockwise motion inside
the beach ball around our tennis ball sun. Our model is set now.
As the earth marble orbits the sun, the other planets and our sun
and moon appear to move through the signs or against the backdrop
of the 12 different color patches. Our tape celestial equator is a
360 circle divided into 12 sections of 30 degrees each. All
movement of our solar system is measured relative to this model.
Depending on which constellation the sun appears to rise in at the
time of your birth determines the sign or house you are said to be
born under. The ancient Babylonians believed that your soul
traveled through that gate or house on its way to Earth. As it
passes through this portal from heaven, it takes on the
characteristics particular to that sign.
Dionysus
- March 29 marks the beginning of a great festival held in Athens
every year to honor Dionysus. This festival was first held in 5th
century BC and was considered a form of worship to Dionysus. On
the grand amphitheatre on the SE slope of the Acropolis, the
latest Greek comedies and tragedies were played out. The festival
would begin with a procession and a likeness of Dionysus was
brought to the theatre. The theatre was ritually purified and
civic activities took place, the acknowledgement of generals,
diplomats and elected officials. Then the poets, playwrights and
musicians performed for the citizens, the priests of Dionysus and
a panel of judges. Unlike the Oscars, Tonys, and Emmys in which
professionals in the field decide awards, ancient judges were
ordinary citizens. The judges were influenced by the approval or
disapproval of the audience. On the last day of the festival, the
awarding of prizes took place. Many Athenians perceived Dionysus
as a deity who disrupted social normalcy, allowing behavior that
would be otherwise considered obscene or inappropriate, including
reversals of social roles, cross-dressing by boys and men,
drunkenness in the streets, basically widespread partying like a 6
day St. Patricks day if you will. Even prisoners were released on
bail to attend the festival. So get a nice bottle of Merlot, rent
a movie and let the festivities begin!
Dogons
- At the center of one of the most intriguing mysteries
surrounding the notion of "are we alone?" sits the Dogon tribe
from West Africa. The Dogon tribe from the Republic of
Mali has based their entire
culture, which is estimated to go back as far as 3000 BC, around
the Dog Star, or Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky.
Follow the 3 stars in the belt of Orion, who now rises in the
west, and they point directly to Sirius. In 1946, two French
anthropologists lived with the Dogons and managed to gain the
trust of the high priests who guarded the oral history of their
tribe. These two guys managed to document some amazing revelations
about the Dogons sophisticated understanding of the cosmos. The
Dogons are a primitive, Stone Age tribe but they possess detailed,
uncanny knowledge of the Sirius star system. They knew of Sirius
was a binary star system and had a dark companion - Sirius B. It
wasn't until the 70's that we had a telescope powerful enough to
verify this and sure enough, there it was. They knew it took 50
years to make a complete orbit and that it had an elliptical
orbit. Most primitive tribes are not familiar with Kepler's laws
of planetary motion. They knew the white dwarf companion was very
heavy - and indeed and matchbox full of the white dwarf would
weigh 50,000 tons. They knew the earth turned on an axis. The
Dogons used four calendars, a solar and lunar calendar and a
Venutian and Jovian calendar. Their drawings of earth always
depicted the earth as blue, another thing primitive man is
generally not aware of. The Dogon priests told the anthropologists
that they were visited by beings from the Sirius star system. They
came to earth in a "star" that went into the water and the beings
would come out of the water at night to impart their wisdom of the
universe. The reason an entire culture would evolve and hand down
an oral tradition that is based on a tiny invisible star is surely
one of the big mysteries yet to be solved.
Dreaming
-
Dreaming is something we all do. It is a
necessary rejuvenating function of our
brains and we all dream every night, some of us don’t remember our
dreams. Clinically speaking, dreams are a mental activity
associated with REM or rapid eye movement which accounts for about
half of a newborn’s sleep, but only about 2 hours out of 8 for
adults. If you added up the hours we spend dreaming, it amounts to
about 6 or 7 years. Different cultures place varying emphasis on
the importance of dreams. They play an extensive role in myths and
religion. In the Christian bible, dreams are an important source
of knowledge about the future. Modern westerners are not
particularly interested in the prophetic power or spiritual
significance of dreams. Our culture regards dreaming as a way a
purely psychological vehicle for the subconscious to express
itself. Tibetan Buddhists believe the experience of dreaming is in
fact as real as our waking state, that the reality or world of
dreams is just as valid and knowable as our day-to-day reality.
There are many obvious and measurable differences. For instance,
we are not bound to linear time in dreams. There is a wonderful
story of how the prophet Mohammad journeyed through all of heaven
on his mystical steed guided by the angel Gabriel, the archangel
of dreams, recorded all of the Koran and woke to find that the
glass of water he turned over as he fell into this trance had not
finished emptying. If the average person sleeps 7 hours a day and
lives to be 75, they’ve actually slept for 22 years.
There are many that believe it’s possible, however, to get more
life out of those dark years through lucid dreaming and dream
control.
Lucid Dreaming is simply knowing that you are dreaming while it’s
happening. When you know that you are dreaming, you can alter the
dream course. And with practice you can also develop full control
over your dreams, you will be able to create and change the
environment and the dream scenario. It’s up to you. The word Lucid
means that you have a clear and full consciousness. Some say that
Lucid Dreaming can be much more fun than waking reality. Lucid
Dreaming usually takes place during REM sleep. Lucid Dreaming is a
safe activity. It is lots of fun and actually has practical
applications. It can be used for visualizing and assisting the
healing process. You can do whatever you feel like, without
putting yourself in danger, or spending a lot of money. It’s great
for therapy too. You can overcome your fears; confront things that
would be uncomfortable or impossible in waking reality. If there
is something you want to get better at, like French horns or water
polo, practicing while dreaming can enhance your skill level. The
physiological nature of REM sleep is ideal for establishing neural
patterns without actual movement. Experiments show that you can
get physically stronger with mental training. Just like everyone
dreams, virtually anyone can learn to be aware that they are
dreaming. How long it takes for you to learn Lucid Dreaming
depends on how good your dream recall is and how motivated you
are. Wanting to have Lucid Dream is a good first step. You will
see cues in your dream that alerts you you’re dreaming. Usually
it’s quite obvious - you find yourself in an unfamiliar place or
doing/seeing something that would not likely happen in reality.
But sometimes can you find yourself in your bed, and everything
looks as it is suppose to be. But patience and practice almost
always produces results.
Duel
Nature of Life -
The human body is made
of a correlation of chemical elements - a group of elements from
the upper right corner of the periodic table collectively called
the "Nonmetals". Most of the body (over 80%) is salt water. Bone
is made of calcium, phosphorus, oxygen, and hydrogen. Also in the
mix are carbohydrates made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen; we
have proteins, fats and nucleic acids - our DNA and RNA. But are
we more than a beaker full of elements? We are dual in nature in
that we have a physical body, but we are also conscious entities.
The world’s sacred texts all teach of an ethereal body or soul if
you will, that enters the physical body with the first breath and
exists the body with the last. It is the connectedness of the
ethereal body, the Buddhists call it the “bornless one,” the
Kabbalists call it “Ain Soph” or no thing, Jung called it the
collective consciousness, that unites us and the physical body
that gives us our illusion of separateness.
Five Senses
-
Many leave it to the most reliable
judges of reality - the five senses - to be the filters of
knowledge we most rely on. The statement “I’ll believe it when I
see it,” could be argued in scientific terms that we “see what we
believe.” Actually, human sight is far inferior to that of most
housepets. There are many colors and wave lengths that are
unperceivable to human eyes. These wave lengths make no impression
on our eyes, much less convey information to our brain, yet they
exist. The same is true for sound. These radio waves your
listening to initially belong to the higher part of the vibratory
scale and must be translated and reduced to an audible range. We
know that vanilla has no taste, only smell, but we are lulled into
thinking its delicious by its sweet aroma. We know that atoms are
largely made of space. Remember the analogy of the nucleus of the
atom inside the electron’s orbit is like a baseball relative to
the baseball field. Matter is actually a loose “bubble like”
configuration, yet it feels solid to the touch. Many things exist
in this world, yet make no impression on our nervous system. This
is reality v. actuality. Reality is what we realize and sometimes
it has absolutely nothing to do with actuality.
Genesis Mission
- The sun is at the center of an immense magnetic bubble called
the heliosphere that extends far beyond Pluto. The constant push
of material along the magnetic field is called the solar wind. It
blows in all directions and at almost a million miles an hour.
When it approaches the end of the heliosphere, it slows suddenly
and forms this huge shock wave called "solar termination shock."
Our earth is also a big magnet. Our magnetic field is generated by
our iron core. Magnetic north and south attract these particles
into our atmosphere, creating the aurora borealis or northern
lights and in the southern hemisphere, the aurora australis. In
its 795th day of spaceflight, NASA's Genesis spacecraft has
gathered particles from the solar wind since October 2001.
Recently, the collectors were deactivated, the samples stowed and
it has begun its million mile journey homeward. This will be the
first sample return from space since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
To collect the particles, Genesis used array panels made of
sapphire, silicon, gold, and diamond. With data from this mission,
scientists should be able to say what the Sun is composed of at a
level of precision they've never had before. Later this month,
Genesis will begin trajectory maneuvers that will place the
spacecraft on a route toward Earth with an Earth flyby on May 2,
2004, and a dramatic mid-air capsule retrieval on September 8,
2004 at the United States Air Force Utah Test and Training
Range.
Hammurabi
- What is the law? We
negotiate two distinct types of law everyday. The first is natural
law. Nature is absolutely bound to its laws, it can never disobey
its own rule. The second is manmade law - a human construct that
is constantly having to be enforced because it is constantly being
broken. Hammurabi ruled Babylon in 1795 BC. He established Babylon
as a world metropolis and proclaimed publicly an entire body of
laws known as the code of Hammurabi. The code was carved into a
stone monument 8 feet high, which was recoved in 1901 in the
Persian mountains. The code begins and ends with a prayer, cursing
anyone who defied the law. Heavier crimes are punishable by death.
The lex talionis, or “eye for an eye” principle made famous by the
Hebrews was introduced with the code. The only way for an accused
person to challenge his sentence was to throw himself into the
Euphrates River. This allowed the gods to
intervene - if he made it to shore, he was innocent, if he
drowned, he was guilty.
Hindu Creation - In the Hindu tradition, creation is the dynamic game of three
fundamental forces symbolized by the three gods: Brahma, the
creator, Vishnu the sustainer and Shiva the destroyer. The
correspondence of these three principles is of course birth, life,
and death and they relate not only to our physical existence, but
at psychic spiritual existence as well. They represent the very
basis of the universe. In the beginning there was nothing, but the
undifferentiated and unmanifested. Everything was in perfect
harmony. Lord Vishnu lay sleeping on his serpent, Shesha. When he
opened his eyes, a lotus stock emerged from his navel and
blossomed into a beautiful lotus. From the lotus was born Brahma,
the creator. Brahma then created the universe. Some say that
Brahma created the entire universe in a little golden egg. Brahma
existed independent of space-time. Brahma, in the formless realm
or pure ideas, first showed himself as a golden embryo of sound.
He was a vowel, vibrating outward through nothingness. The sound
re-echoed back upon itself and its waves crisscrossed and became
wind and water. The complex interplay between wind and water
created the weave of the world. In this tradition, the path of the
human being to spiritual perfection begins with a creative,
positive inner attitude, named "cosmic optimism" or the
recognition and identification of each of us with the fundamental
divine energy that created everything. The creative inner attitude
offers us the possibility of discovering our true, profound
nature, accelerating our spiritual progress. This is a part of the
evolutionary process. It may be awakened and amplified through the
process of resonance with Brahma's specific energy.
Hiram Ibiff
- Perhaps one of the most revered builders in history is Hiram
Ibiff. He is attributed with building Solomon's temple. You may
remember his father David was to build the temple, but David
angered god when he sent a young man to certain death in battle so
that he might come to know the soldier's wife Bathsheba,
"biblically." God decided to let the fruit of their attraction
build the temple, which was Solomon. The King of Tyre dispatched
Hiram Ibiff to help Solomon build the grand design. Hiram's
craftsmanship was unmatched and he was a master of many things.
Masonic legend differs from the bible once the temple is complete.
Hiram returns to his own country once the structure is complete
according to the bible. Masons believe he was murdered by three
workers, buried and left for dead. Solomon sent out groups of
three to find Hiram's body. Hiram was found and raised from the
dead by a Master Mason. The martyred and resurrected Hiram
portrays the spiritual death of man and his regeneration through
initiation into the Mysteries. He represents the Christ figure,
who in three days, or in three degrees, raises the temple of his
body from his earthly crypt. His three murderers are the state,
the church and the mob, but he overcomes ignorance, superstition
and fear and finds his higher nature.
Juno
- At the founding of
Rome, the gods were 'numina', divine manifestations, faceless,
formless, but very powerful. The idea of gods as personified human
beings came later, with influence from the Etruscans and Greeks.
For early Romans, everything in Nature was thought to be inhabited
by numina or the divine, which explains the big number of deities
in the Roman pantheon. Numina manifest the divine will by means of
natural phenomena, which the pious Roman constantly sought to
interpret. Great attention was paid to omens and portents in every
aspect of Roman daily life. The month of June is named after the
goddess Juno who is the patroness of marriage, and many people
today still believe this month to be the best time to marry. Juno
was the Queen of the Gods and Jupiter's wife. The Goddess of
heaven and of the moon, Juno symbolized the matronly qualities
Roman women should possess. She was the protector of woman during
childbirth and child rearing and was said to be present at all
marriage ceremonies. Juno protected the City of Rome from the
Gauls. Before the attack the sacred geese in the temple of Juno
alerted the Romans of the pending danger, giving them the
opportunity to attack and defeat the Gauls first and save the
city. In addition to geese the peacock is also a sacred symbol of
Juno. Jupiter’s daughter, Minerva, was born through the use of
magic. She came directly from the head of Jupiter, leaving Juno
out of the process. This made Juno jealous so she in turn finds a
magic flower that fertilizes women. Juno uses the rare flower to
become pregnant and give birth to the god Mars.
Jupiter
- Jupiter the
supreme ruling god and considered god of the sky and weather, and
guardian of all property, oaths and treaties. Jupiter is the king
of the Roman gods. He has had many different names because he was
adapted to fit the Roman's current needs. When the Roman
Republic first appeared, he was the god of sun and moonlight, wind, rain, storms,
thunder, and lightning. He was also known as the god of sowing, of
creative forces, and of boundary stones of fields due to the fact
that the early republic was very agricultural. As the
Roman Republic turned into the Roman
Empire, Jupiter became a militant god. His main temple was located
on Capitoline Hill. Jupiter is often depicted as a bearded older
man, probably to show that he is wise. His sacred animal is the
eagle. The planet that bears the name Jupiter does so because it
is the largest and most majestic planet.
Lemuria
- In Roman religion, on May 9, 11, and 13, the Lemuria or
Lemuralia, the Feast of the Lemures (q.v.), was observed, during
which the unwholesome and malevolent sprectres of the restless
dead were appeased. This ancient custom was Christianized in the
feast of All Saints Day, established in Rome first on May 13, in
order to de-paganize the Roman Lemuria. In the 8th century, as the
popular observance of the Lemuria had faded, the feast of All
Saints was shifted to November 1, coinciding with the similar
Celtic celebration of the spirits at Samhain. Pope Gregory III
(731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all
the saints and fixed the anniversary, not by chance, for 1
November. This was a feast during which the ancient Romans
performed rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearful ghosts of
the dead from their homes. On those days, the Vestals would
prepare sacred mola salsa (salt cake) from the first ears of wheat
of the season. The myth of origin of this ancient festival was
that it had been instituted by Romulus to appease the spirit of
Remus. It was the custom to appease or expel the evil spirits by
walking barefoot and throwing black beans over the shoulder at
night. It was the head of the household who was responsible for
getting up at midnight and walking around the house with bare feet
throwing out black beans and repeating the incantation, "With
these beans I redeem me and mine" nine times. The household would
then clash bronze pots while repeating, "Ghosts of my fathers and
ancestors, be gone!" nine times. In Roman mythology, the Larvae
were the spectres or spirits of the dead; they were the malignant
version of the Lares. Some Roman writers describe Lemures as the
common name for all the spirits of the dead, and divide them into
two classes: the Lares, or the benevolent souls of the family,
which haunted and guarded the domus or household, and the Larvae,
or the restless and fearful souls of wicked men. But the more
common idea was that the Lemures and Larvae were the same. They
were said to wander about at night and to torment and frighten the
living.
Lithosphere - By definition, our planet has three distinct regions, the lithosphere,
the hydrosphere and the atmosphere. The interactions that take
place between these regions determine life on earth. The
lithosphere includes all solid material of the Earth. All of the
stone, soil, rock and the whole interior of the planet is
considered part of the lithosphere. The hydrosphere includes all
water on the Earth’s surface. It also includes the liquid water in
the crust, the oceans, the streams, lakes and groundwater – as
well as the frozen water in glaciers, on mountains and in the
Artic and Antarctic ice sheets. The atmosphere includes all of the
gases found between Earth and the beginning of interplanetary
space. The lithosphere’s basic structure consists of the crust,
the mantle and the core. By weight, the earth is mostly iron. Four
and a half billion years ago, when the planet coalesced from the
interstellar matter, remnants of that is the solar system is made
of, most of the heavier elements sank into the deep interior and
eventually formed a core. More than 3,000 miles down, the solid
inner core is about 1500 miles in diameter and it makes up less
than one percent of the Earth’s volume. What we know about the
inner core, has been pieced together primarily from seismic data.
Seismologists measured the underground effects of earthquakes,
determining how quickly their movement travels through the center
of the Earth to other places on the globe. They have developed the
theory that deep inside the Earth, spinning in a watery pool of
iron, the Earth's core is a giant iron crystal slightly smaller
but more dense than the moon. It’s turning in an eastward
direction and spinning faster than the Earth itself. Every 400
years, the core is a full turn ahead of the Earth. It’s in excess
of 7000 degrees and the pressure is 3 million times great than
that on the surface.
Maia
- May 15 is sacred to Maia, the Goddess for whom May is named. The
festival of Maia is always observed a week before the entry of the
Sun into Gemini, ruled by Maia's son Mercury (Hermes). According
to Greek Mythology, Maia was the goddess of spring. She was the
eldest and loveliest of the famous Pleiades, or Seven Sisters.
Zeus fell in love with the shy young Maia, and with her he
fathered a son, Hermes, who would eventually become a god himself,
as well as messenger of the gods. Maia is also known as the
"grandmother of magic," as Hermes was said to have invented magic.
Later on in life, Zeus placed into Maia's care Callisto's baby
Arcus, so she is additionally known as a mothering goddess - more
specifically, the goddess of midwifery. In Roman Mythology, Maia
was an earth goddess. As with her Greek counterpart, the Roman
Maia symbolized youth, life, rebirth, love and sexuality. She was
also held as the goddess of plants and of the spring. By Jupiter,
she was the mother of Mercury. She was also worshiped as a "good
mother." The Maiasaurs were a species of plant-eating duckbilled
dinosaur named after the Greco-Roman Maia. Fossils of the "good
mother reptile" have been extremely useful in the study of
parental care in dinosaurs, as they were the first to be found in
groups that included adults and "nests" of young. Maiasaurs, which
lived during the Cretacious period -- about 80 to 65 million years
ago -- have been found in large quantities in the state of
Montana. In 1985, several Maiasaur bone and egg shell fragments
flew to Skylab 2, making Maiasaurus the first dino in space!
Maya Creation - In the beginning there were only two: Tawa, the Sun God, and Spider
Woman (Kokyanwuhti), the Earth Goddess. All the mysteries and the
powers in the Above belonged to Tawa, while Spider Woman
controlled the magic of the Below. There was neither man nor
woman, bird nor beast, no living thing until these Two willed it
to be. In time they decided there should be other gods to share
their labors, so Tawa divided himself and there came Muiyinwuh,
God of All Life Germs and Spider Woman divided herself and there
came Huzruiwuhti, Woman of the Hard Substances (turquoise, silver,
coral, shell,etc.). Huzruiwuhti became the wife of Tawa and with
him produced Puukonhoya, the Youth, and Palunhoya, the Echo, and
later, Hicanavaiya, Man-Eagle, Plumed Serpent and many others.
Then did Tawa and Spider Woman have the Great Thought, they would
make the Earth to be between the Above and the Below. As Tawa
thought the features of the Earth, Spider women formedthem from
clay. Then did Tawa think of animals and beasts and plants, all
the while Spider Woman formed them from the clay. At last they
decided they had enough, then they made great magic and breathed
life into their creatures. Now Tawa decided they should make
creatures in their image to lord over all the rest. Spider Woman
again formed them from clay. Again the Two breathed life into
their creations. Spider Woman called all the people so created to
follow where she led. Through all the Four Great Caverns of the
Underworld she led them, until they finally came to an opening, a
sipapu, which led to the earth above.
The Milky Way
-
On a clear summer night, you can
easily spot the plane of the Milky Way as it runs almost directly
north to south. It's the place we call home in the universe that
we share with 100 billion stars and is 100,000 light years across.
Our sun is about two-thirds of the way out from the center. One
way to understand the relative nature between our sun and our
galaxy is to imagine the disk of the Milky Way is as wide as North
America. Our solar system - the sun and its nine planets - would
be about the size of a CD in relation to the continent. Our sun
would be a microscopic speck, so small that it wouldn't even cause
the CD to skip. Directly overhead around midnight, along the plane of the Milky Way is Vega, the 5th brightest star in our
sky. Vega is in the constellation Lyra and is one of the points of
the Summer Triangle. Vega is a blue-white star that burns much
hotter than our orange-yellow sun. Vega is only 162 trillion
miles, or 27 light years from earth, a mere jaunt. And Vega's
exactly where we're headed. Our solar system is moving in the
direction of Vega as we spiral around the Milky Way. We are moving
at the incredible speed of 43,000 miles an hour or 12 miles a
second! Every year, our sun and all of its planets traverse almost
400 million miles of space. This path we travel is called the
"Apex of the Sun's Way." It would take us a half billion years to
catch up with Vega, if Vega weren't moving itself.
The Moon
- Our moon has seen it all. It shone down on the break up of
continents, glistened in the eyes of T-Rex, and illuminated the
builders of Stonehenge. We know a lot more about it today, but
we’re still unsure about its origin. Some believe the moon spun
off of a young, volatile earth. Others believe the moon formed
independently from the same huge cloud of gas and particles as the
rest of the planets in the solar system. Another theory suggests
that earth was struck by a small planet, sending pieces of it into
orbit and that debris eventually coalesced to form the moon.
Finally, yet another theory suggests that the moon formed
elsewhere in the solar system and was pulled into orbit by the
earth. We do know that the moon is about 240,000 miles away. If
you held the moon up to the earth, it would just cover the
continent of North America. It orbits the earth roughly every 29.5
days. And it rotates! Think of the face of the man in the moon. If
the moon was completely stationary as it went around the earth, we
would eventually see the back of his head. But it rotates just
enough to show the exact same surface area of the moon at all
times. Gravity on the moon is only about 1/6 of what it is on
earth so with some well-designed wings, you could support your own
weight in flight. The moon’s gravity is responsible for the tides.
As the earth spins on its axis, we experience a high and low tides
everyday. The moon’s gravitational pull is not only strong enough
to affect the water, it actually distorts the planet. Picture a
paper cup of water. Squeeze the cup, and the water level appears
to rise. Release it and the water level drops. The effect our hand
has on the cup is the same effect the moon’s gravity has on earth.
Moses, Ten Commandments -
What is the law? We negotiate two
distinct types of law everyday. The first is natural law. Nature
is absolutely bound to its laws, it can never disobey its own
rule. The second is manmade law - a human construct that is
constantly having to be enforced because it is constantly being
broken. Many Christians believe that the first laws were given to
Moses on Mt. Sinai over 3000 years ago after
the Hebrews fled Egypt. Moses actually had to go to the mountain
twice. The story is told in Exodus. Moses spent 40 days on the
mountain and was given a set of stones made by God himself. God
gave Moses very specific instructions on how the stones were to be
housed. God gave Moses the blueprint for the Arc of the Covenant.
When Moses came down the mountain with stones in hand and saw his
people worshipping idols, he threw the stones down in a fit of
rage. He went back up the mountain and pleaded for a second
chance. God relented, but this time Moses had to write them down.
God also instructed Moses on how he wanted these stones stored.
According to the Talmud, an important ancient Jewish text, we now
have two sets of stones, two arcs. The first arc was said to have
been stored under the inner shrine of Solomons Temple in Jerusalem
but lost with the destruction of the temple in 586 BC. Some
doctrines say the first ten were positives - instructional instead
of a list of don’ts.
Papa
Legba - Among the
Yoruba and Santeria communities of Africa and the Americas, June
29 is the feast day of the Orisha Eleggua. The religion of the
Yoruba people in West Africa is a tradition of nature worship and
ancestor reverence that is thousands of years old. In addition to
the worship of one creator God, the Yoruba worship dozens of
deities known as Orishas who are personified aspects of nature and
spirit. Orisha worship was brought to the new world through the
slave trade. To preserve their religious traditions against
Catholic repression, the African slaves synchronized the orishas
with Catholic saints. Eleggua is most closely associated with the
Christian devil. Also known as Exu, Eshu, Elegua or Elegba; Papa
Legba in the Vodoo traditions, he is the owner of the crossroads
and is a trickster - he creates opportunities or takes them away.
He teaches patience. Eleggua is the owner of all the roads in the
world. There are many incarnations of Eleggua. Some live on the
street corners, some live in the woods, some live on the banks of
the river or the shores of the oceans, some live at garbage dumps,
some live at the door of the cemetery. Eleggua is a messenger of
the gods. Since he lives on the street, he knows everything that’s
going on. Central features of this religion are drumming and
dancing celebrations known as tambors. Altars are created, and
food is offered to the Orishas. Eleggua must always be fed first
when sacrificial offerings are made. Eleggua once used his
knowledge of medicinal herbs to cure the Creator. In appreciation,
Eleggua gets to be the first to eat when the Orishas are fed.
Drummers play precise rhythms causing specific Orishas to descend
and possess priests and priestesses of the religion. The rhythms
and forms of Yoruba religion are said to be fundamental to the
development of many forms of African American music from gospel to
blues and jazz, and to musical forms such as Salsa and Latin Jazz.
Parilia
- Legend has it that Rome was founded on this day, April 21, 753
BC. Today is Parilia, the Ancient Roman festival that is both an
ancient agricultural festival sacred to Pales and the birthday of
Eternal Roma Herself. The Vestal Virgins opened the festival by
distributing straw and the ashes and blood of sacrificed animals.
Ritual cleaning, anointing, and adornment of herds and stalls
followed. The celebrants jumped over a bonfire three times to
complete the rite of purification. According to legend, the story
of Romulus and Remus begins with their grandfather Numitor, king
of the ancient Italian city of Alba Longa. He was ousted by his
brother Amulius. Numitor's daughter, Rhea Silvia, was made a
Vestal Virgin by Amulius and forbidden to marry since her children
would be rightful heir to the throne. Mars, the god of war, fell
in love with her and she gave birth to twin sons. Fearing that the
boys would grow up and seek revenge, Amulius had them placed in a
basket and thrown into the freezing flooded waters of the River
Tiber. When the waters receded, the basket came ashore on
Palantine Hill. They were found by a she-wolf who, instead of
killing them, nurtured and nourished them with her milk. The twins
were later found by the king's shepherd. He adopted them and named
them Romulus and Remus. They grew up to be bold, strong young men,
and eventually killed Amulius and restored the kingdom to their
grandfather. Deciding to found a town of their own, Romulus and
Remus chose the sacred place where the she-wolf had nursed them.
Romulus began to build walls on Palatine Hill, but Remus laughed
because they were so low. Remus mockingly jumped over them, and in
a fit of rage, Romulus killed his brother. Romulus continued the
building of the new city, naming it Roma after himself.
Pineal Gland
- Gray’s Anatomy will
tell you the pineal gland, named for its conical shape, is about
the size of a pea and it’s located right in the center of your
head, nestled beneath the corpus collasum, or the bridge between
the two hemispheres. It is larger in children than it is in adults
and larger in women than in men. It is assigned to the endocrine
system. The pineal gland produces the hormone melatonin, but is
only active when the optic nerve is not being stimulated - when
we’re asleep. It produces a calcium deposit that is referred to as
“brain sand.” There is a neural connection between the eyes and
the pineal gland. In base brain animals like alligators, those
that have nothing more than a brain stem and a medulla, the pineal
gland is actually an underdeveloped eye. Although little is known
in western science about the functions of the pineal gland, it is
believed to play an important role in the onset of puberty. Many
ancient cultures and philosophers teach that the pineal gland is
the elusive “third eye” and assign it the “seat of man’s
intuition.” They believe thru meditation and visualization, you
can stimulate the pineal gland to function as it has for our
ancestors. Hindu mystics practicing Kundalini yoga strive to cause
the spirit fire to rise up the spinal cord and feed the crown
chakra. Ancient Egyptian royalty wore the coiled cobra over the
third eye to symbolize the eye of Horus had been awakened in them.
Our link to this intuitive energy could be right in front of our
eyes - or right behind them.
Private
Spaceflight
-
The world's first privately funded rocket
plane plans to shoot beyond the uppermost layers of Earth's
atmosphere later this month in a bid to demonstrate the viability
of commercial space flight. The SpaceShipOne project, backed by
Paul Allen, the billionaire sci-fi fan and co-founder of Microsoft
Corp., and led by aviation expert Burt Rutan, plans to send a
rocket plane 62 miles, into the air and back down again in
California's Mojave Desert.
The rocket plane, which will be carried to an altitude of 50,000
feet by a larger carrier aircraft called the White Knight, will
spend about three and a half minutes at its peak altitude, during
which the test pilot will experience weightlessness. During the
latest test flight in May, test pilot Mike Melvill reached an
altitude of about 40 miles, the highest altitude ever achieved by
a non-government aerospace program, about two-thirds of the goal
for the next flight, scheduled for June 21. To promote private
space flight, the X Prize Foundation is offering $10 million to
the first team that launches a piloted, privately funded spaceship
with three people on board to 100 kilometers, brings it back to
earth, and repeats the flight again within the three weeks. At
least 26 other teams are also competing for the prize, reportedly
involving backers such as Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos as
well as Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. At its
peak altitude, SpaceShipOne's pilot will be able to see the black
sky of space and the curvature of the earth. It was designed and
built by Burt Rutan and his aerospace company for an estimated $25
million. He’s the same person that developed the Voyager aircraft.
Update
- On June 21, SpaceShipOne blasted into the history books after
being the first private aircraft to successfully enter and return
from space. Pilot Mike Melvill was ecstatic, but the mission did
not go as well as they intended. He had to use a backup system to
control the rocket for its return after the primary system failed
for unknown reasons. When he reached weightlessness, which he
experienced for 3 minutes, he released a bag of M&M's in the
cockpit. He said, "I let them go and they just spun around like
little sparkling things in front of my face." The view below, he
said, was awesome. He could see the curvature of Earth's surface,
islands in the Pacific Ocean and mountain peaks further north in
California. Space was jet black, the horizon was blue and low
clouds over Los Angeles looked like snow. He loved the colors and
said it was like a religious experience. SpaceShipOne, designed by
aviation legend Burt Rutan, landed at
8:14 a.m. after a 1 1/2-hour
flight, in which it was lifted to about 48,000 feet slung beneath
a carrier aircraft, White Knight. After SpaceShipOne was released,
Melvill fired the rocket fueled by liquid nitrous oxide and solid
rubber. Preliminary data shows the rocket plane reached 328,491
feet, about 400 feet over the magical, 62-mile mark, or 100
kilometers that makes it a sub-orbital flight.
Pythagoras
- Pythagoras was born
around 600 BC and is said to have been the first to call himself a
philosopher. Wise men called themselves sages, but Pythagoras was
modest and coined the word philosopher meaning one who’s searching
for knowledge. He traveled the ancient world extensively to learn
the secret teachings of all cultures and finally established a
school in southern Italy. This was the first school that taught
the earth was round and rotated around a fixed point. He also
taught reincarnation and personally believed his understanding of
the world came from the memory of his past lives. Pythagoras was
also a vegetarian and believed that eating meat clouded the
reason. He also defined for the first time the rational of the
musical scale by listening to blacksmiths hit different sized
anvils. He saw the musical notes as governing forces in the
universe and developed the theory of the music of the spheres. As
so often with great genius, Pythagoras met great opposition. His
school was invaded and burned and he was killed by those who were
threatened by his thoughts.
Reincarnation
-
Tibetan Buddhists
believe that through meditation and good moral behavior, one can
find Nirvana or a state of perfect enlightenment. This might take
you many lifetimes to achieve depending on how your deeds are
adding up on the old karmic slate. Karma is the law of cause and
effect. The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, the spiritual
leader of Tibet, is said to be the 14th incarnation of the
Bodhisattva, the Buddha of compassion because he has chosen to
reincarnate to serve the people. When a Dalai Lama dies, monks go
in search of the direct incarnation of their former leader. A
young child is selected by his ability to identify personal items
like a pipe or bowl that belonged to the former leader. The test
is actually quite rigorous and the child must respond perfectly to
every aspect of the test. Gyatso was found at the age of two and
his enthronement took place a few months before he turned 5.
Tibetan Book of the Dead describes in detail the alleged
experiences one has in the intermediary state between two
incarnations. A Bodhisattva, or enlightened being, is motivated by
pure compassion and love. Their goal is to achieve the highest
level of being: that of a Buddha. You must begin or enter the
Bodhisattva way by generating the 6 Perfections - 1] generosity,
2] ethics, 3] patience, 4] effort, 5] concentration, and 6]
wisdom.
Hindus strive to be released from repeated incarnations through
the practice of yoga, adherance to the Vedic scriptures and
devotion to a guru. The divine trinity in Hinduism representing
the cyclical nature of the universe begins with Brahma, the
creator, Vishnu the preserver, and finally Shiva, the destroyer.
Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita, “Just as the self advances
through childhood, youth and old age in its physical body, so it
advances to another body after death. The wise person is not
confused by this change called death. Just as the body casts off
worn out clothes and puts on new ones, so the infinite, immortal
self casts off worn out bodies and enters into new ones.” For
Hindus, there is no way to retain any conscious memory from one
life to another, because its domain belongs to the world of
illusions and dissolves at death. That’s one of the arguments used
against the idea of reincarnation - our inability to remember our
past lives. But how much of childhood do we remember? Usually our
memories of childhood are vague and widely separated from each
other. It is difficult for the average adult to recall specific
facts or instances that occurred twenty years ago, so basing an
argument against reincarnation on lack of memory is weak. Many
western scholars have openly professed their belief in
reincarnation. Pythagoras believed that he was blessed with
superior knowledge because he could remember everything he’d
learned in his past lives. Henry Ford, George Bernard Shaw and the
scientific, keen analytical mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle found
truthfulness in the doctrine of reincarnation. In his last
interview, Doyle said he believed the soul is born and reborn many
times. Perhaps the soul is like a book we write our life lessons
in and if we’re lucky, we get to take our notes to the next class.
Sedna
- When astronomers recently announced the discovery of Sedna, the
most distant known object in the solar system, they were nearly
certain it had an unseen satellite. New observations by the Hubble
Space Telescope find no moon, however, deepening the mystery
surrounding this already strange object. Sedna is about
three-fourths the size of Pluto. It is so far away that it takes
10,000 years to orbit the Sun. Its discovery has astronomers
arguing over whether to call it a planet or a planetoid or where
it may have come from. They were convinced Sedna had a moon
because most objects in the solar system that don't have
companions complete a rotation on their axis, or day, in a matter
of hours. Sedna spins on its axis just once every 20 Earth-days,
or perhaps even more slowly, making the presence of a moon
practically inevitable. So shortly after the discovery, Hubble was
pointed at Sedna and now the astronomers are completely baffled
since they found no moon. There's a small chance that during the
Hubble observations, the suspected satellite of Sedna was hidden,
lurking either directly behind or directly in front of Sedna but
it's unlikely. Keep in mind looking at Sedna is equivalent to
spotting a soccer ball at 900 miles away. While Pluto's orbit is,
on average, 39 times the Earth-Sun distance, Sedna roams from 76
to 1,000 times the Earth-Sun distance.
Socrates
- June 4 is the birthday of Socrates. By his use of critical
reasoning and his unwavering commitment to truth, the
fifth-century Athenian set the standard for all Western
philosophy. During his youth, Socrates showed a great deal of
interest in scientific theories, but he abandoned inquiries into
the physical world for a dedicated investigation into the
development of moral character. He served as a soldier during the
Peloponnesian War, Socrates dabbled a little in politics, then
retired to work as a stonemason and to raise his family. He
inherited some money from his father who was a sculptor; Socrates
gave his full attention to inventing the practice of philosophical
dialogue. Socrates devoted himself to discussion with the
aristocratic young citizens of Athens, and his aim was to
understand virtue through a dialectical method or critical
analysis and was constantly questioning truth of popular opinions.
He believed that by destroying the illusion that we understand the
world perfectly and by accepting our own ignorance, we can begin
to acquire genuine knowledge. Many of his students were
fanatically loyal to him but their parents were not pleased with
the influence this controversial political figure held over their
children. An Athenian jury found him guilty of corrupting the
youth and interfering with the religion of the city. They
sentenced him to death in 399 B.C.E. Accepting this outcome with
remarkable grace, Socrates drank hemlock and died in the company
of his friends and disciples. Plato was perhaps one of his most
famous students.
Soul
Evolution
-
The evolution of the
soul, or the ability of the soul to retain the lessons of life is
accepted by both eastern and western schools of thought, but the
notion that the soul can return to earth is heavily disputed. Most
ancient cultures believed in reincarnation and a majority of the
world still do. Buddhists, Hindus, Celts, Maya, Inca, Egyptian and
Jewish cabalists and Gnostic Christians all held to the doctrine
of reincarnation. Modern Christians reject the notion, but the
contemporary followers of Jesus and the Apostles believed in
reincarnation. In a collection by Saint Augustine called “Origen
De Principiis,” Jesus is attributed with saying, "Every soul comes
into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the
defeats of it's previous life. It's place in this world as a
vessel appointed to honor or dishonor, is determined as it's
previous merits or demerits. It's work in this world determines
it's place in the world which is to follow this." Although the
actual word doesn’t exist in the bible, the concept does. One
could argue the concept of being “born again” is born of the idea
of reincarnation. It was the Second Council of Constantinople in
the year 553 AD when the definition of of reincarnation was
declared heresy. The powers that be were convinced that people
would obey laws and get with the program much quicker if they
thought they only had one shot at getting into heaven. And the
impoverished masses wouldn’t have as much motivation to fatten
church coffers.
Summer
Solstice
-
The Summer Solstice is a very
important station in the earth’s orbit around our star or as the
pagans say, on the wheel of the year. Visualize the earth and the
imaginary line that is the earth’s axis running from north to
south. Tilt the axis 23.5 degrees and there you have the reason
for the Earth’s seasons. That slight tilt of our planet as we
orbit the sun dramatically affects our relationship to our star -
even though we are 93 million miles away. The tilt toward or away
from the sun as circle it changes the amount of our hemisphere’s
surface area absorbing the sun's rays. On the Spring and Fall
Equinox, the length of night and day is "equal." The sun rises due
east and sets due west directly over the equator. For those of us
living in the Northern hemisphere, on the Summer Solstice, or the
first day of summer, the sun appears to rise at the farthest
northern point on the horizon; it shines directly on the Tropic of
Cancer, located exactly 23.5 degrees north of the equator. It
appears to rise there for a couple of days, hence the word
“Solstice” that translates to "Sun Standing Still," then it begins
its journey south. We’re tilting towards the sun and this day is
the longest of the year. On the first day of winter, the sun
shines directly on the Tropic of Capricorn, located 23.5 degrees
south of the equator and is the shortest day of the year. Ninety
percent of the earth’s animal and plant life live between the
Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Torrid Zone so
life on earth is very much connected to the path of the sun.
Taxes
- Taxation has a long influenced the shaping of history and
civilization throughout the world. Tax collectors are found in
Egyptian tomb paintings dating 2000 B.C. The Egyptians taxed many
things used in daily life, like cooking oil. They taxed foreigners
and slaves, and it is likely that the Biblical enslavement of the
Jews in Egypt was accomplished by levying upon them a tax too high
for them to pay which left them vulnerable to enslavement under
Egyptian law. Ancient Rome had an elaborate tax system which
included sales taxes, inheritance taxes, and taxes on imports and
exports. In the 4th century B.C., the Romans built the first
tax-free shipping port to divert traffic from where ships were
charged a 2-percent tax. During the 1st century A.D., the Roman
emperor Vespasian imposed a wide variety of taxes including the
Fiscus Judaicus, a tax on the Jews. In 212 A.D., a 10-percent
inheritance tax was imposed upon all Roman citizens. In 60 A.D.,
the English fought fiercely against the invading Romans and their
tax collectors. During the Middle Ages, Lady Godiva, was said to
have ridden naked through the English town of Coventry to protest
the taxes imposed by her husband. English citizens also forced
King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215 A.D., partly in reaction
to his disregard for the tax laws; the King had the power to
spend, but only Parliament was supposed to have the power to tax.
In 1404, Parliament passed the world's first income tax and it was
so unpopular that not only was it rescinded, but all records of it
were ordered burned. Taxes repeatedly sparked revolts in England,
and in France during the French Revolution of 1789, all of the
French tax collectors were found guilty of treason and sent to the
guillotine.
UFOs in Mexico
- Mainstream news outlets are reporting that during the week of
May 5, a cluster of mysterious objects surrounded a Mexican Air
Force plane, alarming the pilots and sparking a UFO scare. The
pilots grew nervous during a routine drugs surveillance flight in
March when their radar detected strange objects flying nearby and
an infrared camera showed 11 blobs of light, invisible to the eye,
hovering or darting about their plane. Mexico's Air Force released
footage just last week. UFO researchers say the objects seemed
"intelligent" after they turned around to surround the plane
chasing them, but scientists are saying they could be a weather
phenomenon known as ball lightning. St. Elmo's Fire is a type of
continuous electric spark called a "glow discharge." It is almost
exactly the same as the glows found inside fluorescent tubes,
mercury vapor streetlights, old orange-display calculators and in
"eye of the storm" plasma globes. When it occurs naturally, we
call it St. Elmo's Fire, but when it occurs inside a glass tube,
we call it a neon sign. St. Elmo's Fire and normal sparks both can
appear when high electrical voltage affects a gas. St. Elmo's fire
is seen during thunderstorms when the ground below the storm is
electrically charged, and there is high voltage in the air between
the cloud and the ground. St. Elmo was a bishop in Italy when he
had to flee for his life and suffered persecution under the dark
reign of Emperor Diocletius. Legend has it he fled to Mt.
Lebanon and lived a solitary life, being fed by a raven. Diocletius discovered
his whereabouts and threw him in prison. Legend says when a blue
light appears at the mast head of a ship before or after a storm,
sailors believed St. Elmo was looking out for them. The UFOs in
Mexico were spotted on
radar as they approached and tailed the Mexican Air Force
surveillance plane. As soon as the planes quit following the
lights, they vanished.
Venus
-
Just like the
Moon in a solar eclipse, the planet Venus will be exactly between
the Earth and the Sun for around 6 hours beginning tonight at
around 1:10 AM. Instead of blocking out the Sun, as the Moon does,
Venus will only appear as a small black dot against the face of
the Sun. This is so rare is because Earth and Venus orbit the Sun
on slightly different planes. This difference, about 3.4 degrees,
combined with the fact that Earth has a slower orbit than Venus,
means that the two planets align with the Sun only twice (eight
years apart) every 121.5 or 105.5 years.
Venus was named after the goddess of love and beauty. It’s either a
Morning Star or an Evening Star because like Mercury, it is closer
to the sun, so it will always follow the sun over the horizon or
just precede it at dawn. Venus is close in size to Earth, has an
atmosphere and almost the same amount of gravity, but it most
hostile. Venus is blanketed by thick, yellow clouds of sulfuric
acid that block view of the surface. Below those clouds is a thick
atmosphere of carbon monoxide. The pressure of the atmosphere is
90 times greater than it is on Earth. Venus is the ultimate
example of greenhouse effect - the atmosphere traps heat, the
surface can get up to 900 degrees F - much hotter than Mercury,
but absent of atmosphere. Venus rotates, or spins, in the opposite
direction from the rest of the planets in the solar system. On
Venus the Sun "rises" in the west, and "sets" in the east. Because
Venus rotates slowly in the opposite direction that it circles the
Sun, one day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days. It takes Venus 224
Earth days to orbit the Sun so one day on Venus actually takes
longer than its year.
© 2004 Wendy Brinker
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