Dogma vs. Gnosticism continued

A Reader commented on the last blog post and I decided that these are some really excellent questions worth digging into. Deep stuff. Here we go!

Paul(Nite Reflections) said: "I agree about being innocent by birth. I can also see evidence of the "born in sin" concept. When you look at the selfish instinct of a toddler. I guess if a toddler is told "no don't touch that" he could get protective of his own things. So, I guess that could be a learned response. Sorry I guess I am debating with myself here."

Debate until the day you die, man. Because really, what else is there? If we were stagnant and boring people then what the hell is the point of continuing to breathe? Really. Seriously contemplate that. What's the point of taking that next breath if this is all there is? This world is nuts. If there wasn't a point to it all I'd be six feet under right now. By nature, I am easily bored.

Confronting learned responses one at a time is vital to gnostic growth. Breaking yourself free from them is hard work. Baby steps. 

Here's the gnostic answer to your query about sin and children/adults: we grow through time, just like any other creature. The 'selfish' actions of a toddler are just exactly what they are- the actions of a child with a child's mind and a child's body. Through time we grow and learn what is not selfish. Our parents and community raise us to have morals which will help guide us through society successfully. But, it's up to us to freely use their advice or to ignore it. We create the life we want, period.  You already know this. So now comes the obvious question: where did the original morality come from?

Use it or ignore it, the same is true with pleroma's morality and the freedom that he shouts is available to us. It is up to us to decide how to use that freedom. The freedom has always really been ours but dogma is like a choke chain around our neck. It cuts off the oxygen to our very thirsty brain. It's such a profound thing to tell someone or to have pleroma whisper in their ear, "Life itself is not evil. Live it. Experience it. You can do whatever you want." 

It's like the person's internal bubble bursts and they start clawing and scrambling for walls that aren't there anymore. A lot of people freak out for a few months while they adjust to the epiphany. When pleroma says you can do whatever you want that's exactly what he means. You can get up out of bed for the day or you can lay and daydream. He knows there are repercussions for you choosing the second option and gosh darn it, he's going to let you figure out what they are! That doesn't mean he's not going to chide like the child you're being as you're laying there, though.

To put it into simple context-- If we were truly 'born in sin' then any civilization before Christ's intervention would have been nothing but a slobbery mass of murdering heathens with no concept of morality or organized structure. But this isn't so. Archeology is proving without a doubt that the time before Christ was rich and filled with hope, the same as now. Just for an example of the kind of organization and cooperation necessary to create community and purpose, read about Gobekli Tepe, a place we still know next to nothing about. This civilization is around 12,000 years old!!! Stone Henge is only between 4,000-5,000 thousand years old. Christianity is only around 2,000 years old. Doesn't that make your head spin? 

We're talk about 10,000 years of time before Christ in which these people lived and died and what they left behind is so momentous we are gaping at it like children. And yet look at the skyscrapers and airplanes we've built? Aren't they amazing? And yet we're still gaping like wide eyed children at people's leavings of over 10,000 years ago. 

Even Plato and Plotinus, Euripides, Ptolemy, Porphyry, and the like... these scientists and philosophers are only around 2,000 years old. When you think of what could have come before them, it makes you realize just how much humanity has lost and gained again. We're in a gnostic Renaissance right now. Stretching our intellect inside the tight dogmatic skin we've created for ourselves the past 2,000 years is going to be painful for a while yet.
  

Paul(Nite Reflections) said: "There are some things that are honestly are a stretch for me, having been taught otherwise for 50 years. The biggest question that came to my mind was, where do Gnostics stand on creation vs evolution. If we didn't rise up out of a garden, what is the Gnostic theory?"

This is a fundamentalist mind trap. It's a divisive diversion and we're stuck on it for a variety of reasons. We have to consider here, first, that the theory of evolution has only been in the mainstream education system for a handful of decades. Before that every school had a parochial slant in the science and history department so this is a lot for our older generations to recover from.

The gnostic theory is part of the Donut and Coke Bottle brain teaser I've been talking about for a few months. I believe that the creation/evolution question is never really going to be answered because of dogma. Dogmatic thought and control processes as part of our civilization are just too strong. All we can do is see it's(creation's/evolution's) results. Gnosis will always be a minority thought pattern. We will never have big glorious churches because there is no profit in that(we wouldn't use them anyway!) and the powers-that-be on this world(archons) are all about influence and control. 

But the good things is that trying to get rid of religion in science(and vice versa) is ... well... impossible. The more our brightest scientists learn the more they keep turning to questioning religion and our origins. It's the greatest mystery for the human mind to ponder. Some scientists say it's the only question worth asking and they're finding bread crumbs to follow in everything from DNA folding(our understanding of which came from the art of origami paper folding!!!) to the gasses inside of stars and following their trajectory throughout their life. 

Looking out in the sciences isn't going to get us the real meaty answers, though. Those answers are going to come within and as individuals. This is the exoteric as opposed to the esoteric, however even this is becoming an old way of seeing things now because they're gradually merging! The exoteric sciences are leading to greater understanding of the esoteric sciences of our own soul and existence on this plane of reality.

The mass of humanity won't ever really get it.  But it will not be because information isn't made public; they won't 'get it' because it wont resonate with them on a personal level. They're not ready for it. Personal understanding is essential to going up that ladder toward him.

Read about white holes which are the opposite of black holes. Science is vital to understanding what we are as a physical manifestation but it's amazing to me just how much of this theory overlaps with metaphysical and religious theory. 

For example, some scientists are theorizing(with some proof to back it up so far) that we are nothing but holograms. No computer system today can DISprove it. These, and other scientists are also working on the theory that we are energetic beings which are so closely entwined that when confined alone we would go insane. We need one another for some real physical reason but the electricity is the only formed hypothesis so far. Electricity?!! What are we, batteries? Or is this relating to the aiua theory by Orson Scot Card(sci-fi writer extraordinaire) who has prompted study in this new field? But wait-the 'aiua' isn't new. It's old. Really old. The oldest gnostic thinkers knew about this but told us in allegorical stories. What is old is new again. Or is it being recycled through our massive human consciousness?

I'd never heard of white holes before last week and yet my answer concerning the Donut and Coke Bottle Challenge has already been written(Note: the answer is not a white hole, per say). Now there's a strange coincidence. Which isn't. Which makes it even more cosmically funny. Pleroma's a goofball.

Every gnostic piece of writing and every gnostic I have ever talked to about humanity's genesis have been in either of these two camps: 

1. One group answers with a koan like this, "How do you know we really originated on Earth?"  Truly enlightened people, I tell you.  They call us stardust babies.
2. The other group answers with scientific data and usually shrugs their shoulders and says, "The elder gnostics wrote what pleroma told them and didn't have any other way to explain it. Now we have the science but even so we're still children in that field. The Garden story is a metaphor for humanity growing up, which we are still doing as individuals as we combat dogma." 

Even Jesus himself as a man or spirit or somewhere in between, gnostics are all on the fence about him. Gnosis is individual but with some very common threads. 

We're questioners. That is what we do. That is our job. We are professional students of the human condition.
  

Paul(Nite Reflections) said: "With Sophia being the wisdom of Pleroma would you say that would be kind of the same thing as the Holy Spirit to Jehovah?"

Sophia. This spirit is something of an enigma to me still. Personally, I think I missed her along the way. I jumped right from "Tarot.. hmmm. could be interesting to learn about" which lasted a grand total of a year to "Holy crap, who's singing to me in the shower?!!" 

What I means is that someone can jump from hylic to psychic to pneumatic in weird off the wall ways. I never saw or felt Sophia along my way. I don't feel a separate manifestation from pleroma. I don't feel anything particularly female or separate from his intelligence or strong personality. 

All the reading I've done on Sophia does indicate she is like the Holy Spirit. Or even, in a pagan sense, the Goddess Mother. In my pagan phase I could never conjure up or talk to anyone like her, let along connect with any of those spirits. It would not surprise me in the least if this is exactly what she is; simply a pagan-turned-dogma character gnostics made up to create dialogue with fundamentalists using their concepts. Certainly wouldn't be the first time!

So then is the gnostic 'genesis' story still correct? Did Sophia create the demiurge? I don't know.  Personal experience tells me that I can sense pleroma, the demiurge, and all the archonic forces within our lives. But Sophia? I just don't know. There are some gnostic stories which have speculated that Sophia went on vacation somewhere after creating her awful child or that she merged back with pleroma to be at peace after her decision. So can we still sense her?

When I was a Christian in the dogmatic sense, I never once felt the Holy Ghost. I did feel(what I now recognize) pleroma trying to bust down my mental doors, but there was nothing Ghostly about it, not in anyway the Holy Ghost has ever been described as a spirit or essence of god.

Now, as a gnostic I think back to that time and realize that the reason was that it's all one. There is no two or three. It's just one. We try to personify him and compartmentalize him out into parts we can understand in human terms but it's just impossible.  He's massive. And this is the reason why he tries to be so gentle with us; he knows he overwhelms us! Look at all of the gnostic definitions for pleroma. Just reading down a small portion of that list makes my head throb. It's a physicists worst nightmare, trying to quantify that. And yet look at our universe itself. Is there a coincidence there?

In my article Gnostic Universe at a Glance I talk about the three main variations of how gnostics view our universe. I am more partial to the onion-verse. It makes more sense to me, especially regarding the demiurge(Jehovah/Yahweh).

Paul, with your background you'll probably find the mainstream Cathar depiction to be more understandable, at least for now. It looks quite a bit more like what you're used to. 

I'm going to be posting the answer to the Challenge soon and since I am referencing the Gnostic Universe at a Glance here I wanted to give another small hint-- invert the onion.

Satanism/Luciferianism-- Gnosticism?!

On YouTube there is a documentary called Killuminati which has prompted this post. The documentary isn't even finished being produced in all it's parts but it deserves commentary from a gnostic.  There is a deep misunderstanding brought to the surface during the 9th section which directly shows just how gnosticism gets lumped in with the evil crowd. This is instructive as this is precisely the kind of garbage being perpetuated world wide. It is important that we clear up this grave misunderstanding because... you're reading a gnostic blog!

Let me state emphatically here, right now-- gnosticism is not Lucifer worship, Satan worship, or anything you can possibly contrive about that(those) entities. I do not and would never worship anything evil. I loathe evil. I recognize it for what it is: bad stuff! I do not worship chaos or power hungry entities.

The erroneous motif of Luciferian worship in concordance with gnosticism has a long history; it spans back at least as far as Irenaeus and his 'Against Heresies' work. (available on Amazon here)He codified what it meant to be a heretic against the almighty Church and being gnostic was the gravest sin of all why? Because to be gnostic was to tell the world(and the Pope) that you did not need clerics to tell you the nature of good and evil. You did not need anyone to 'save' your soul because we are 'born in sin.' Instead, you believed that you were born innocent; tabula rasa, and instinctively knew what is good is not to be feared, ie. life experiences. How can an experience which teaches you something be bad? The Church wants you to repent for things you haven't even done yet. You were born a sinful, dirty thing and you should be ashamed of yourself for it.

The Church has tried to shove those very notions down the throat of everyone within reach for nearly two thousand years, creating the most horrific spectacle of evil on Earth. When I speak of evil I am not only inferring the molestation from priests and nuns, I'm talking about things far more profoundly evil than I can mention in my blog. Do your own reading. I'd suggest starting with Sister Charlotte Keckler. That's not even the tip of the iceburg, folks. The deeper you go the darker it gets. Research masonic lodges. Continue. Do your own reading.

I digress. Ok, so the Catholic Church is evil. Have they been pointing the finger at us(gnostics) throughout the ages as a way to divert attention from themselves? Absolutely. The problem is that there are other organizations which are directly connected with the Catholic Church which advertize themselves as non-religious orders but they in fact are. The members might not know it, though. (Masonic orders and the like. Illuminati at the core)And because they have bought into the out-of-the-field fundamentalist belief system of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden they have taken the kernel of truth gnostics take for a metaphor and spun it so wildly out of control that they make Jeffrey Dahmer look like a cute little bunny. Countless millions of people have suffered for this doctrine of hate through the millennia as a result.

What is this core metaphor gnostics know about the Garden of Eden story which gets us into so much trouble with the Church? It is simply this: the "snake" did us a favor.  But it is the identity of the "snake" itself which is only part of the problem. Roman Catholics call him Satan or Lucifer. In some stories gnostics call him pleroma or the All , the Good God, or even Sophia. Ahhhhh, so now do you see where the misunderstanding has come about? It all goes back to the fundamental misunderstanding of what is good and evil, who 'God' really is, and what the purpose of life is. If you don't understand who or what 'God' is in the context the gnostics are using him then yeah, it all turns into a name calling party. But it's not even really about what names are used for which character. This isn't about names. It's about a misunderstanding of the characters themselves and where they reside in the hierarchy of Good and Evil. 

Think of a totem pole of power. But you've never even heard of the guy on top. Why not? This is what gnostics ask fundamentalists to justify every single day and they refuse. The fundamentalists are stuck on worshiping the middle man instead of the real power. And no wonder that middle man feels the need to make everyone feel bad, he's got an inferiority complex!

That's a load of tripe, most people say. Now get back to the snake. How can you call Lucifer good? Well, we don't. Satanists and Luciferians do. Catholics have gone batshit crazy through the centuries(that's obvious even to atheists) and their doctrine is so flawed that when atheists and gnostics can agree on some things you have to admit that something is amiss. The reason we can agree with atheists is because they only hone in on the Abrahamic God personality not considering other possibilities, when that is the God they're pissed off at. I've already written about this in other posts. 

Ok, so those who worship Lucifer tell everyone that the snake did everyone a favor. Gnostics also think the snake did everyone a favor. But gnostics aren't Luciferians? How is this so? I'm going to make this as simple as I can for all the fundamentalists who come here and read this post so you can understand once and for all that you can't browbeat gnostics about this issue ever again.  As a matter of fact, from now on I'm going to consistently link people who make this assumption directly to this post. Here's the definitive answer.

Satanists and Luciferians were initially inspired by gnostics but have run so far afoul of the concepts that they have gone insane. That's the whole problem right there. They're nuts. They're fundamentalists of Evil. Gnostics want nothing to do with Luciferians or Satanists. Then why do we get tarred with the same brush?? Let's break it down.

Luciferian/Satanist point of view:

1.  Luciferians/Satanists believe Lucifer/Satan was either cast out of Heaven unjustly and/or created this world.
2. Luciferians/Satanists believe the God of the Old and New Testament(Jehovah/Yahweh) is evil. He wants to enslave humanity. 
3. They believe the 'snake' is Lucifer/Satan and that he should be worshiped and/or revered because he opened Adam and Eve's eyes to what freedom they could have outside God's protective garden.
4. Wiki: "While Satanists are deeply involved in living for the moment, content to remain who or what they currently are, Luciferians seek ways to aid humanity’s progression to the next stage of social, physical or intellectual evolution. One religion deals with the self, while the other deals with humanity as a whole and the natural world in which we live. In spite of using similar archetypes, the Luciferian pursuit of knowledge and understanding has little in common with the Satanic goal of immediate gratification."
5. Wiki: "Rather than focusing on “what comes next,” Luciferians feel that humans should be focused on this life and how to make the most of it every single day. Enlightenment is the ultimate goal."
6. Wiki: "Luciferian principles highlight truth and freedom of will, worshipping the inner self and one’s ultimate potential as opposed to bowing to the rules of a supernatural entity. Traditional dogma is shunned as a basis for morality on the grounds that humans should not need deities or fear of eternal punishment to distinguish right from wrong and to do good."
7. Wiki: "Most theistic Luciferians, however, are solitary practitioners, connecting with others who share their beliefs but not forming or following a particular institution. A personal relationship with Lucifer is commonly achieved through meditation and the practice of Magick, either independently or in small groups, unaffiliated with a larger community. While this relationship is a deeply personal one and, as such, varies from one practitioner to another, it follows by default the Neo Pagan approach of seeking camaraderie and inspiration rather than the father/child or master/servant dynamic of monotheistic beliefs. The thought of a spiritual hierarchy or submission to a higher power is looked down upon on the grounds that being a god is not enough; even a deity must earn respect and admiration from those who follow him. In some cases, Lucifer is seen as a rebel angel or opposing god who sought to move humankind forward in defiance of Jehovah’s will to keep them ignorant and childlike. In other cases, Lucifer is believed to be the actual creator of Earth and the mortal realm, and was punished for bringing humans into existence. Exact beliefs and practices vary greatly, as they do within any religion, but in all cases Lucifer is considered to be a positive figure of both social and intellectual progress, with magick and ritual as potential tools to follow in his footsteps."
8. Wiki: "Most, but not all, atheistic Luciferians are involved with the occult and practice magick, ritual and meditation. They do not accept the idea of non-corporeal entities but do often follow the occult as a means of harnessing the natural powers and energies around them to achieve their goals. In this way, many embrace the concept of Lucifer as the inner self, and essentially deify themselves by striving to understand, change and recreate the world around them, becoming their own “gods.” Striving for apotheosis is a common theme among most Luciferians, but the approach runs particularly strong amongst atheistic practitioners."
9. Wiki says: "Luciferianism does not support violence or amoral practices. Luciferians strongly believe in equality, moral excellence, honesty and integrity. They support the moral and intellectual development of children in particular, and the protection of the natural world." 
10. Man is meant to overpower those who are weaker than they are. Might makes right!
11. Greed is good. Look to the robes, symbology, accoutrements, and palaces of the Pope to see a good example of this. Follow the money and the history. Catholicism is Luciferian at its root. Magic is practiced every single day for its parishioners in open view and they accept it as being holy and good. This magic is used to tether people to dogma and a perception of perpetual sin and redemption. Luciferians will not admit to their connection with Catholicism, though. An ex-Catholic is a completely different story. They tend to open right up and tell it all, quite fearfully.

Gnostic point of view, in no particular order:

1. The demiurge(Jehovah) created this universe and declared himself God because he didn't know he wasn't the only one. His mother, Sophia, created him and was so embarrassed by him that she put him in a vacuum-like area. So he himself was all he could see. He thought he was God. He thought he just sprang forth from nothing and was all-powerful. 
2. There is no Satan in gnosticism, only layers of ideas or realms of ideas and spirits which can influence human beings which are called Archons. They vary in philosophy and purpose. They are spirits.
3. All gnostics are theists. We believe in a deity and spirits, if not several levels of them. We do not need the God of this world(the demiurge/Jehovah/Yahweh) but we do need the All/pleroma/the Good God. Pleroma is in essence our spiritual grandfather. He is not in any of the Genesis stories fundamentalists will ever tell because to talk about him or even acknowledge his presence is an affront to them. He is a separate entity entirely from Satan. We do not have anything to do with Satan. The 'snake' in our 'Genesis' story is actually Sophia, which is an emmination of Pleroma whom he calls his 'wisdom.'
4. Gnostics understand personal metamorphosis and forgiveness. We've never tortured or killed someone because they don't convert. Gnosis can't be faked. Personal room to grow is a fundamental right of gnosis. Everyone has a place in this world, no matter how contrary their ideas may be from ours. 
5. Humans are already free by birth. Humanity didn't need a helpful 'nudge' from any snake; we were born perfect and whole and fully capable of understanding good and evil simply by listening to our innate common sense. That innate common sense is our soul, which is divinely connected to pleroma/the All. We derive our common sense and conscience from him, directly. Bad people tune him out, good people tune him in. It's that simple. You are accountable for your actions and expected to act in a mature fashion. If you don't act in a mature fashion then you'll simply make yourself miserable. You get what you give.
6. Jehovah/Yahweh is evil. He has a purpose(overseer of this material world) but he is evil at the core. He wants to separate us from Big Love(pleroma) because he wants us to worship him instead of the real Love above him. He wants to keep us in fear and suspicion over every little move we make and every thing we think, saying they're sins and that we're too stupid to learn from our own mistakes and we need to blindly trust in Him to think for us.  Instead of allowing free will, his apostles feel they have to threaten humanity with tales of brimstone and fire to keep us all under their thumb and giving tithes to churches which revel in sins themselves. We already know what's right and wrong! We have a conscience. We don't need man telling us right from wrong. We can teach and influence one another but ultimately we are very intelligent beings and can sort this out for ourselves.
7. We co-opted the Garden story to argue with fundamentalist Christians. (Our Genesis story is drastically different, see #1.) We don't even believe it really happened. It's a metaphorical story.  Humans didn't magically 'rise up' from any garden. When gnostics have talked about it historically it is to create a dialogue about the differences between Jehovah(demiurge) and the Good God(pleroma/fullness/totality/the All) for visual and demonstrative purposes. Like using puppets to get the point across as to the intent of the subjects. Sophia was the puppet for pleroma, saying to Adam and Eve, "Hey! This jackass is lying to you! You live in a much livelier world than he's telling you about. There are colors you've never even seen before and they're all available if you remove the choke collar from your neck. Choking something you love isn't good or loving."
8. The material world is bad. Greed is bad. The material world is a distraction from the Good God who waits one day to fully merge with us again after death. Our lives do have meaning and it is to experience all we can of in this world and this existence so we learn from it; so we can grow more steadfast in our knowledge that good is worth living for and worth searching for. People are good at the core and will acknowledge it if you give them half a chance. 
9. Our purpose is to propagate good in people and let them see that greed in the material world hinders them from true and lasting happiness, not just after death, but here and now.  
10. We don't worship the 'inner self.' We worship pleroma, which we are divinely connected two and have always had access to.  Everyone has access to pleroma. He is the Good God attached to us by a spiritual umbilical cord. 
11. Narcisism is looked down upon in gnosticism. There isn't really such a thing as a 'person' when I look at you and then a 'person' when I look back at myself in a mirror. There is only 'us.' We all make up the body of pleroma. We have joint causes, not individual one. We are all connected and we all affect the growth of one another. Personal ambition is perpetual spiritual failure when taken to the extreme and for the wrong cause.
12. Lower level gnostics(psychic) do sometimes perform magic acts until they grow out of that need to use props to focus their energy. Ascended gnostics(pneumatic) have no need for that ceremony to understand the divine. Once fully initiated they are able to connect to pleroma with no ceremony, thus making them ascended. This is known as entering the bridal chamber. Understandably, this diversity in the ranks causes confusion to outsiders.  Some neo-pagan groups like Wicca can be seen as lower level gnostics. Some pretend that they are capable of gnosis but are not; they may even use some of the same names for spirits. They hold the same snare and hooks as dogmatic religion and fully intend to keep their practitioners there at the same level. It depends on the intention and the path being taken.  The lower deities and imaginative emmanations from humanity's past are merely footstools to ultimately arrive at the truth of pleroma and once that truth is realized those lower spirits become trivial. The goal is to use the power of one's own soul and mind to connect to the Good God, not to use magical props as a spiritual crutch.
13. Gnostics believe in reincarnation but not in Hell as literalist Christians have written about it. No fire and brimstone await us. The closest we come to 'Hell' is when we have lived a bad life and made bad choices and when we die we are put in a place furthest out from the Good God while we await to be reborn. Distance from the Good God isn't pleasant, it is painful because we're so jealous of those closer to him, but it is of our own choosing. When we choose to get closer to him in life then we enter into a ring of afterlife closer to him in distance. This is more pleasant because we can see him and sense his warmth and love for us. The ultimate goal is to finally merge with him completely and stop being reborn in the material world. To get there, you have to do GOOD!

The whole point is really this: Satanists/and Luciferians are inspired by gnosticism but they have taken one kernel truth of gnosticism(Jehovah being bad) and run so far out into Candyland with it there's no turning back. They're evil because they want to be evil. Period. They can't see any possibility for the existence of the Good God because they're so hell bent on hating Jehovah.

Protect the natural world? This sounds like a PR line. What are they, Greenpeace for the Morning Star? Ritual animal and human sacrifice. Sex magic with unwilling minors. Yes, they're really humanitarian in nature.

Gnostics do not collude with the Devil. (We leave that to the very capable hands of the Catholic Church.) Gnostics are heretics by definition of the Roman Catholic Church but only because the Church is so jealous and greedy. There is no money to be made in gnosis. They can't control us, they've never been able to. They've only ever been able to kill us. There is only personal understanding to be had; no power even, in gnosis. The only power which exists in this world is that of the Evil One because he rules this world but not our spirits.

The most pure hearted gnostics have always been dirt poor and lived in the gutters of their community.  Or, they've created communities which revolved around gnostic concepts and then had them razed to the ground by the Church. Read about Pope Innocent III and his rationale for wiping out the south of France.

I hope this article has helped dispel the myths. If you can think of anything I can add to make this even better please leave me a comment.

PS. Please pardon me for using Wiki as a source. Concerning Satanism/Luciferianism, all the other sources I found were basically saying the exact same thing as Wiki. So we know who's editing Wiki, right? 

EOC/FCAT School Insanity

If something is labeled End of Course then doesn't it seem logical that the test would be taken after the course is ... finished... and all the information of that course is expected to be in your head and then tested? 

Sorry, but this is going to be a Mommy-vent post.

The Florida Board of Education is just getting stupider and stupider every time they change something to 'update' it and make our children more capable of competing with children in other countries. So this year they've gotten rid of the FCAT standardized test which we've had for years and years and oh yeah, since a certain president decided that No Child Should Be Left Behind. That hasn't worked out so well since the teachers and admin created an environment where cheating and lying have become the norm.

We have now moved onto specific EOC(End of Course) tests for specific classes. Namely, Algebra, Geometry, Biology, and US History. My thirteen year old will be taking the Algebra EOC this year. Technically, since he is a homeschooler(virtual schooled) student he doesn't even have to. But au contraire, now the county says that he has to take the EOC if he wants to be enrolled in any public university at a later date. So what was that again about homeschooled students having more freedom than brick-and-mortar students??? Legally, we don't have to do standardized testing. But now we do. But legally we don't. *sigh* Even if universities are throwing money at the kid by the time he's sixteen, I seriously doubt they're going to overlook his lack of EOC test scores. So he has to do them.

Trying to help Trey become more adept at speaking with others about his schooling, being assertive, and getting things done for himself I decided to have him schedule his own EOC testing at his local domiciling school. He's taking an AP test at what will be his domiciling high school(I already got that scheduled) but his EOC testing for Algebra is at his local middle school. Poor thing. He's in 7th grade and having to juggle two different schools. But I thought it'd be good for his character to see exactly what kind of crap I have to deal with trying to get anything at all done for him or his brother. By five o'clock yesterday he was a shaking mess and ready to burst at the seams. He'd had to give messages to three different people at two different locations, and one of them was county based. He'd been transferred ten times and once to a person who was supposed to be someone else but the person lied to him. (This was the assistant principal.)

End result? The middle school didn't have a clue what End of Course testing even was and they're supposed to be doing it in less than two months! It still isn't resolved, even after three days of calling and waiting. 

Now here's the truly stupid thing to have to consider here-- none of his teachers have specifically told him that the courses have to be complete by the time he takes his AP(college) exam or his EOC test. Think about that for a minute. The course doesn't have to be complete. But you're being tested on it. I had to ask the teachers directly about this and even then they were wishy-washy about it. They half-heartedly advised finishing the course but weren't too sure if it had to be done. And that was only after I hounded them for a real answer. Where is the educated in education?

Trey's AP exam is May the 17th. But the course itself doesn't end until June the 1st. This Algebra course? The same thing but the test is a week earlier! So now, because none of his teachers know what the hell they're doing this kid has to completely rearrange his syllabus to make sure he is done with those classes and is ready for the tests. This is not an easy thing to ask him to do. His schedule is loaded already to make time for studying.

Thankfully, he only has the one AP Human Geography and the one Algebra EOC test this year. Next year, since he'll be taking Honors Biology, Honors Geometry, and AP US World History he'll have three tests to schedule and worry about. Those three classes will have to be completed by April or May. This means his first semester will be shorter as will his second semester. Jumpin Jesus, people, think about that. It's nuts.

The Board of Education still wants to have their summers off, that is the only reason why they do all this standardized testing between March and the end of May. They want to have the test scores mailed out by the last day of school. Anything the child is 'learning' after the standardized test is taken is supposedly NOT TESTED upon! I ask you-- what is the point of even going to school all those weeks afterward? Talk about a waste of money. If I'd known this when I was in school I'd have skipped those classes every single day and not felt the slightest bit repentant. And yet I would have been suspended for such a daring(intelligent/logic based) move. Damn skippy I'd have rather been going out and having fun rather than sitting around doing lessons that didn't even matter.

Board of Stooopidity. Not Education. 

After all this chaos the past three days, Trey told me flatly that he understands now why I rant and scream at the phone sometimes. He said, "It's like talking to a three year old. They didn't even sound like they knew what to tell me about anything. They just kept transferring me."

Amen. Now he gets it. 

Teach a child to be independent and they will be independent..... if there's something they want. And in this case there is most definitely something Trey wants and he's going after it full steam ahead-- a free ride to university without $75,000 in tuition hanging over head head until the day he dies.

An Unexpected Prayerful OUCH!

Three days ago I took my thirteen year old son out to a few local lakes to do community service for one of his classes. The next morning I felt like an elephant had fallen asleep on my chest. Checking my local weather channel I see the pollen levels are out the roof.. Wonderful. Well, at least I now know that it's just allergies and I'm not in the throes of a heart attack.

Oak, cedar, and nettle(an herb/weed) pollen have taken over the area I live. Just like the past two years this has happened I dare not even open the windows. I huddle inside like a hermit waiting for the evil stuff to go away.

I was ready for it this year. I already had my doc give me a prescription for Benzonatate and I already had it filled. These cough suppressant pills looks like yellow caviar. I'd first taken Benzonatate last Spring when allergies turned into pneumonia and I had excellent results with it. This year, however, something peculiar occurred. 

I'm laying in bed, out of breath. Can't breathe, although I'd taken the Benzonatate over twenty minutes ago. It's pretty fast acting stuff. In so much pain, I try to pray. Typically it takes me about thirty seconds to connect with the All. I have to push aside extraneous stuff in my head and relax. Not that night! As soon as I began I connected and immediately slammed into a wall of pain so horrifying I nearly blacked out. My right eye hurt so badly I thought I could have had a stroke. Scared, I crawled in bed with my husband. (We sleep apart because he snores.) After a while my heart slowed and the pain in my eye subsided. So I tried connecting again. The same thing happened! 

Every time I take Benzonatate I cannot pray without nearly giving myself a brain bursting headache. But it's not a migraine. It's a bright spasm which occurs only when trying to pray. It's like there's a chemical barrier there that cannot be breached. Needless to say, this is not my favorite drug but right now it's either take the stuff or end up with pneumonia from hacking myself into a frenzy and/or pulling muscles in my chest.

There are a few other drugs which make it impossible for me to connect, but this Benzonatate has given me the most terrifying upset. What would happen if I kept trying? Would I give myself a stroke? I don't know. 

What I do know is that the pineal gland has a great deal to do with our connection with the divine and this particular drug can cause dizziness. That's about the only connection I've made so far. If the pineal gland is upset then dizziness and an overall disconnected feeling will take over. A lot of things in our everyday environment can cause this, fluoride is one of the most prevalent. 

Has anyone else ever experienced unease from having certain chemicals in their body while trying to connect to him?

Cheesy nom noms --nooch

The spiritual person must eat. Ya know... food. For survival. Two types, really. We've got our mindfulness and alertness to our spirit type of food and then we've got the nom noms that fill our belly kind of food.

At least for today I'm going to chat a bit about a nifty ingredient I found to make the body more healthy and give vital nutrients a chance to combat all the other crap we come into contact with on a daily basis. I am in love with this stuff. (I have a serious article on the way, folks, no worries. It's one that a few people have asked me for. It's grating on my brain, though, because it's such a tricky subject to research or write about. Hermes Trismegistos. I am working hard on it, though.)

My husband was a real piece of entertainment the first night I tried this new ingredient at dinner. 

I told him it was cheesy. He scoffed. I was just going to use it on my plate but he was being pushy. He wanted to investigate this new stuff. I knew he was leaning toward wanting to condemn it so that just made his reaction even funnier.

I had him sniff the bottle. He squinted and frowned.  "Put some on this chip," he said. 

So I sprinkled a bit on. He ate the chip. He then grabbed the container from me and liberally dowsed everything on his plate. It looked like a cheese storm. After dinner was done he(caveman beating of chest) licked the plate. I'm talking serious tongue-on-plate action. I was appalled. Pleased, but appalled just the same. I really shouldn't have been. If it's cheesy, he's going to go after it.

Ok. So the husband now likes this new ingredient, although he loudly protested for days beforehand, saying that I was such a weirdo and 'why do you need that crap?!' 

We've been together for around nine years and it still ticks him off that he likes the vast majority of the 'weirdo' things I bring into the kitchen and onto our plates to eat. But he's much better natured about it now. He just acknowledges that it's good and 'gimme some more.' Good enough for me, especially if it's such a powerhouse of vitamins. 

So what is it? Nutritional yeast! Yes, if you were weirded out by reading that then you read correctly. Say it again with me- nutritional yeast!!! YES! ... and not the same thing as brewers yeast or bread yeast or any other type of yeast. Just, nutritional yeast. It is an ingredient unto itself. 

For the yeast-initiated it's referred to in slang as 'nooch.' NUTritional yeast... nooch. get it?

Red Star's nutritional yeast flakes in a shaker, is what I've recently grown to love. I think I need to get a smaller shaker to refill for my purse when I go out. Sprinkled on fish it tastes like a blend of Romano/Parmesan cheese. You can also make a 'cheese sauce' with it and drip or mix it with anything you like, for example: french fries, steamed broccoli, nachos, or noodles. It's a little more difficult to make 'cheese' that'll stick to noodles from what I understand so I'm still investigating recipes for that. People even sprinkle it on popcorn. You can put it on anything. Sandwiches, soups, whatever. Oh and it's heavenly when sprinkled on freshly fried over easy eggs with lots of real butter. (are you salivating yet?)

I had to call around to various stores here in town to find it since it is something of a specialty item. Found it at Publix for $5.85 for a five ounce shaker. That's over $93 for five pounds and with as much as I foresee my family eating this stuff.... eh. I think I'll go with ordering it in bulk online at Whole Foods. It's $32.59 there.

So why would I purposely search high and low for such a weird grocery item? I have intense reactions to vitamin supplements, in general. I get achy and dizzy from anything that has rosehips in it for the vitamin C. It's the salicylate content, I know that now. Vitamin B shots, pills, or sublinqual drops make me jittery and then I crash and burn like a drug addict. And that's with a small dose. As you can see from those two examples, I'm sensitive. 

So nutritionally, what's a person to do with all the nutritionally deficient food available but who still needs additional vitamins? You have to supplement with high density, nutrient rich alternative foods. That's really the only other thing to do if you can't get your hands on a good supply of non-GMO foodstuffs. Here's Red Star's nutrition profile. 

Holy impressed!

Amount on left is per serving and the number on the right is % of a daily value
.

Thiamin (B1)	9.6 mg	640%
Riboflavin (B2)	9.6 mg	565%
Niacin	56 mg	280%
Vitamin B6	9.6 mg	480%
Folic Acid	240 mcg	60%
Vitamin B12	8 mcg	133%

This is just a super short list of the highest ranking vitamins I chose out of that list I linked above. It has zinc, selenium, and phosphorus, and other things. That's not counting the 17% protein!  And I have to say that even with the high amount of niacin, I haven't felt any flushing so far and I'm not exactly skimpy when I use it. 

I found the Red Star nooch in the flour and yeast section of Publix. Some carry it and some don't. I had to call around to three Publix's here in my city alone to find one that did and the manager told me that it's only because they have a few local vegetarians who come by regularly to get it.  Some stores carry nooch in their vegan/vegetarian health section. That's actually where I expected it to be here at this local store and probably why I missed seeing it the handful of times I did search for it. You just have to ask the manager, is what I've discovered. It's an odd product that even most of the stock people overlook so they forget about it and what it is let alone where to find it. 

Bob's Red Mill nooch is a little cheaper than Red Star but I've read that Red Star tastes the best so I figured I'd give myself the best chance at liking it. And I(we) do so maybe I'll go check out Bob's in the future. 

So do you like nooch? Have you heard of it before today?

The Canary Party

Vaccine laws are becoming more and more rigid at schools and the workplace. But the injuries suffered by those who do 'comply' with law are speaking out loudly, as well. The Canary Party is a group dedicated to assisting states pass laws to give people the choice to vaccinate or not. 

Here is a YouTube vid of a meeting where they give testimony in committee within the state of Massachusetts. Bill H.1055 has been stalled but is still being worked on. The Canary Party is national and hard at work. Let's support them as they work for all of us and our best health interests. 

How can we define peace?

“I cannot define my satisfaction, yet, it is so. I cannot define my life, yet, it is so. Is there any gift greater than this joy? Can the soul offer a prayer more perfect than this tender silence?”

Vincent, Beauty and the Beast, Season 2 Ep. 11 

Epicurus' Pleasure

"My lipgloss has real gold particles in it."
"Yeah, well mine has platinum, baby!"

"I drive an Aston Martin and eat caviar by the pound."
"Yeah, well I have a Bugatti Veyron, I own my own island, drink five cups of Kopi Luwak coffee every day, and my personal chef puts shaved white truffle on my scrambled mushroom eggs every morning!"

This doesn't sound like a too terrifyingly familiar argument does it? Look at any celebrity magazine for the rich and famous or read an epicurean magazine and there ya go, word for word.  It's always a game of one-upmanship in who has and who has less.

The Epicurean philosophy is relegated to exotic food/wine/luxury items in today's age of snobbery-by-wearing-certain-labels. It's an act of desperation by those who have(or pretend to have) material wealth when all they really want is attention. But if anyone worth anything at all paid attention to them... what would that person have to say? Would there be silence, awkward stuttering, or just more talk about what that person has or plans to have in the future? Maybe a house of mirrors would be a more fitting present than more trinkets from chic boutiques on Rodeo Drive and Fifth Avenue. 

Epicurus(341 BCE – 270 BCE, Greece) states that this notion of material neediness and showiness is the precise opposite of what he had in mind.

"On the contrary, it(pleasure) is the result of sober thinking-- namely, investigation of the reasons for every act of choice and aversion and elimination of those false ideas about the gods and death which are the chief source of mental disturbances."

Epicurus runs afoul of the hedonistic belief system in this regard. The distressing thing about this is that the two have been entangled together so thoroughly throughout the centuries that we've  forgotten it's base meaning. The core of Epicurean pleasure is derived from personal discernment in our personal evolution, and I believe that in a gnostic fashion this leads to good common sense. Sanity, moderation, and careful deliberation is epicurean in nature. 

"Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little."

Gnostics of all levels of learning and branches of belief can appreciate his philosophy that the absence of pain is worth striving for in this life and beyond. We cannot escape some forms of pain and sometimes that same pain is the very catalyst we need to progress, but ultimately pleasure comes from doing good and being good.

Hedonistic self indulgence can only teach us so much. In the end, gnostics swerve, sometimes wildly, between aestheticism and gluttony. I've asked myself why this is for years now. The only real answer I can come up with is that it is part of our personal evolution. We learn by stumbling and soaring, equally. Epicurus might cluck his tongue at our need for intense physical pleasure at times but we recognize it for what it is-- we're living life to it's fullest. Sometimes we have to exist in utter sated bliss to remind ourselves that this is indeed what we have to look forward to when we ascend, in contrast to the pain and misery we witness every day. The All is just that- bliss. Pleasure is the height of that bliss although he is more moderate and contemplative at times. He is, as always, our model. He goes through cycles just as we do.

When we move in him we understand not just ourselves but the universe.

Right Time Right Place

"To be born when you will be born, that's good fortune. To die when you will die, that's good fortune. To be born and yet not to cherish life, that's opposing heaven. Not to want to die when it's time to die, that's opposing heaven."    ~Liezi

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Pleroma has a time and a place for us to live, breathe, and explore. How do you plan to go about doing that in 2013?

Hermetic Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth

What were see in this Discourse is the preface of an initiation ceremony; a gnostic sage is speaking to his student right before his ascension into a higher realm of enlightenment. In antiquity, the seven planets were known as the seven spheres while the eighth was thought to be where the fixed stars resided. It was also a pivotal, transformative place. The ninth sphere was literally 'god's realm' and what all gnostics reach for when learning, praying, and considering the nature of life itself. In regard to these 'spheres'-- think of an onion.

Hermes Trismegistos is the teacher and the student is unknown. The student could be anyone. The student could be you. (Note: I have an article about Hermes Trismegistos coming up next.)

I find this text, as well as the rest of the Hermetic Literature, to be especially instructive when contemplating lay gnosis(search 'lay gnosis' in the search engine in the blog). Lay gnosis is a physical manifestation of a spiritual transition, and I think it is the eighth realm touched upon by Hermes. This is one of the most esoteric works of his which has survived.

It is lamentable that more Hermetic Literature has not survived the centuries because supposedly there are hundreds of texts which are hidden or were destroyed. Here is what is translated as of today. The complete Hermeticum is available now as well as verified fragments. It's really no wonder that Cosimo de Medici was neck deep in the collection and restoration of the texts, they're such a unique spiritual work. If not for Cosimo then more likely than not the small dialogues in the Nag Hammadi codices would be all we would be left with.

Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth

(The Ogdoad and the Ennead)

"My father, yesterday you promised you would take my mind to the eighth heavenly sphere and after that you would take me to the ninth. You said this is the sequence of the tradition." 

"Yes, my child, this is the sequence, but the promise was made about human nature. I said to you when I first made the promise, 'If you remember each of the stages.' After I received the spirit through the power, I established that action for you. Clearly understanding dwells within you. In me it is as if the power were pregnant, for when I conceived from the spring that flows to me, I gave birth."

"Father, you have spoken every word rightly to me, but I am amazed at what you said. You said, 'The power is in me.'"

He said, "I gave birth to it as children are born." 

"Then father, I have many siblings if I am to be counted among the generations."

"Right, child. This good thing is counted... always. So, child, you must know your siblings and honor them rightly, since they have come from the same father. For each of the generations have I addressed. I have named them, since they are offspring like these children."

"Then, father, do they have a day?"

"Child, they are spiritual, for they exist as forces that nurture other souls. That is why I say they are immortal." 

"Your word is true. From now on it cannot be refuted. Father, begin the discourse on the eighth and ninth, and count me also with my siblings."

"Let us pray, child, to the father of the universe, with your siblings, who are my children, that the father may grant the spirit of eloquence."

"How do they pray, father, when they are united with the generations? Father, I want to obey." 

"... It is right for you to remember the progress you have experienced as wisdom in the books. Child, recall your early childhood. You have posed, as children do, senseless and foolish questions."

"Father I have experienced progress and foreknowledge from the books, and they are greater than what is lacking- these matters are my first concern." 

"Child, when you understand the truth of your statement, you will find your siblings, who are my children, praying with you." 

"Father, I understand nothing else than the beauty I have experienced in the books." 

"This is what you call the beauty of the soul- the edification you have experienced in stages. May the understanding come to you, and you will teach."

"I have understood, father, each of the books, and especially...." 

"Child... in praises from those who raise them."

"Father, I shall receive from you the power of the discourse you will utter. As it was spoken to the two of us, let us pray, father."

"Child, it is fitting for us to pray to god with all our mind and all our heart and our soul, to ask god that the gift of the eighth reaches us and that each receive from god what belongs to god. Your job is to understand, mine is to be able to utter the discourse from the spring that flows to me."