Saturday 28 September 2013

Post No. 475 - Thermodynamics vs. Life

The other day as I was travelling to work, I noticed someone crossing the road: a young man (note that anyone the other side of 30 is young to me these days :) ) who was obviously going to great pains to look fashionably unkempt, and enjoying any attention or reactions he got. This is the sort of person that I have seen thousands of times previously without any particular thought, but this time ... this time something, perhaps a little extra fastidiousness in his smirk, something triggered a tidal wave of thought.

I'll come back to the young man, but for now, I have to explain a bit of science - namely, the Second Law of Thermodynamics. According to this (Scientific) "Law", and quoting from Wikipedia [2] :
"The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of an isolated system never decreases, because isolated systems spontaneously evolve toward thermodynamic equilibrium—the state of maximum entropy."

and (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy):
"Entropy is a measure of the number of specific ways in which a system may be arranged, often taken to be a measure of disorder, or a measure of progressing towards thermodynamic equilibrium. The entropy of an isolated system never decreases, because isolated systems spontaneously evolve towards thermodynamic equilibrium, which is the state of maximum entropy."

So, in an "isolated system, things tend towards an evenly spread chaos (my words), or - as my science teacher at high school, last millennia, put it: "things tend towards the lowest energy state".

This principle of science has proven itself to be quite invaluable in engineering and, I understand, in science, but what if we look at human life. Could there be any evidence of the Second Law of Thermodynamics there?

Well, maybe. if we interpret the Second Law of Thermodynamics as suggesting things will tend towards chaos or uniformity, people - particularly doomsayers! [3] - will find evidence of increasing "chaos" and disorganisation all over the place. As an example, "the young" and their alleged lack of manners have been a source of concern all the way back to the times of Aristotle (my views on this, written about here, are that this perception is tied up with the fact that, as gatherer-hunters, children who reached puberty were basically old enough to start making significant contributions to the tribe, and thus could consider themselves as adults, whereas our insanely more complex and complicated world now denies adulthood until a time after a new, biologically artificial period called "the teenage years" [longer, the case of the USA] ... although I still hold to my views about SPIRITUAL maturity, which, even in the old gatherer-hunter days, was something that not everyone reached ... ).

There have been views about the decline of civilisation over time, back to and beyond Gibbons' work on "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (I have a copy of this, and it really is - to my modern sensibilities :) - a disorganised, overly detailed, laborious and unclear tome) - I've even read people commenting that the early pyramids in Egypt were better built that later ones, which was in a book arguing that the initial pyramids and civilisation of Egypt were brought in by aliens as a leavening of the human species as it then was (which is a view I have come across in a range of sources, of varying credibility - some quite good credibility, actually).

If I look at my life, this fear of social decay could be exemplified by an ex's son, who was a parent of, in my view, dubious parenting "skills" (and his first partner was worse) but, nevertheless, eventually with six kids (fortunately, just before I left that relationship, he wound up with a partner who was straightening him - and his literally screaming horde - out). Other people have commented (in my life - may be some online comments to this effect on line as well, but I haven't looked for them) on how the people who care about kids and plan how to be parent and do their best tend to have far fewer kids than those who are carless, inattentive, erratic "parents".

In fact, from the point of view of society as a whole, even democracy, where everyone has a say, rather than the simpler feudal systems of king, lords and then us lot, is more chaotic and disorganised.

Oops - that's a benefit from chaos. How did that slip in there? :)

Well, that's a good point to start dragging this back towards a point of balance.

Yes, there are trends towards chaos and low energy states. The "smirky young popinjay" triggered some thoughts on that, which I'll eventually get to, but life is an insanely complex, complicated, chaotic and CONNECTED system. It is connected - important point: back there shortly, but first ... the chaos is, to some extent, due to "Life" trying out different options, and seeing what works best for the current, changing circumstances (Goddess, I feel like this post was brought to you by the letter "C") - in other words, evolution.

That's easy enough to see when we consider physical evolution, but I consider something similar happens around emotional, mental, social and spiritual evolution.

Let's consider ... social evolution. Democracy is widely accepted to be fairer than other systems of governance, but it also has the strength that it is more easily adapted to changing circumstances. A monarchy may be able to impose a response from the top down on to society - let's say, a particular economic philosophy in response to an such as the Great Depression; or the smaller, more recent "GFC", but it may not be the correct solution. If it isn't, it may have to wait until a change of leader for a change of policy. Democracy, on the other hand, when it throws up a mistake, generally corrects itself within a couple of election cycles - maybe two decades at most. And, how many decades did it take for the totalitarianism of the Soviet Empire to finally fall? How many years and lives before some of Chairman Mao's experiments (see here and here) were realised to be deadly failures and action taken to address this?

There's still mistakes along the way in democracy, and things I will disagree with, but the point - in the context of this post - is that the chaos of democracy allows a better, workable option to eventually be found and more readily adopted.

Life itself is like that.

If I look at each of us as an individual organism, the Second law of Thermodynamics implies that we should just fall into a pile of molecules with no unity. We're not, though - we're a complex, highly organised, well adapted and adaptable organism - a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

In the same way, this whole small physical portion of reality should tend towards chaos, according to that "law" - and yet, at the moment, we have stars, planets and life ... My argument is that it is the influence of the nonphysical levels of reality that lead to that organisation - we're not the isolated system that the Second Law of Thermodynamics states it applies to.

Even on the level of a single organism, some of Lyall Watson's writing includes evidence (through, for example, the Kirlian photographs of leaves cut in half, which still have the Kirlian energy of a complete leaf) that the physical organism may well be modelled on a nonphysical component (in the system many people know, I consider the etheric is that level of a model for the physical organism). This theory is also used to explain phantom pain after amputation, for instance.

If we look at the human organism, we can see systems within the whole that act to impose order - we have an immune system that fights infection, a nervous system that allows us to move and tells us when part or all of the organism is in danger (e.g. a hand about to be burned, or the whole about to be eaten by a predator ... like a tiger or a shark or an aggressive boss).

So some parts act as agents to enable the whole to be led.

That also, I consider, happens socially and spiritually.

If we consider spiritual life, what tends to happen is that we have very evolved souls who inject something that is so appropriate and inspirational and useful into a particular culture, at a particular place and time, that it leads to something useful - major religions or philosophies, for instance. (Note the qualifications I placed on this - they may no longer be appropriate or useful or inspirational after a few centuries or millennia, or they may have been changed - in much the way that Christianity became neo-Christianity, for instance, and simple momentum may keep them going until that momentum is worn away by the chaos of change - and maybe an Enlightenment or an Industrial Revolution or three.)

What if that injection or leavening is missed in the chaos of life?

It happens again.

Spirit is not easily deterred, nor does Spirit easily give up.

And we do have a need for such injections or leavenings, in my opinion.

If I go back to the man crossing the road, he has perhaps chosen to take advantage of this time in history, one of the few times where so many people, probably almost two thirds, do not have to worry about survival, to explore hedonism.

Now, two thirds? Yes - let's consider something such as the so-called "Golden Age" of Greece, a time of great philosophical and scientific achievement ... by a few men, who relied on the work of slaves, the servitude of women and the protection of an army to be able to indulge themselves in their pursuits. OK, so many of those pursuits were later beneficial to most of humanity, but it is important, I consider, to keep in mind the fact that they were done by a small portion of society: if you were to be magically transported back to that era, the highest odds are that you would have an unpleasant, dangerous, short life.

These days, the First World and an increasing portion of the Third World don't have to worry about things like famines (many do - and also about lack of clean water, lack of shelter, war, etc, etc, etc - so my estimate of two thirds of the world's population is actually likely to be an over-estimate ... and yet that may be the best we've done since "civilisation" was invented), and many of those people have leisure time. In the 1800s when the struggle for the 8 hour day was fought, the argument was for 8 hours work, 8 hours rest (sleep) and 8 hours relaxation. That latter included family time and self-care, but, in those days before Internet, TV, radio, cinema, etc, there was also a strong interest in people trying to "better" themselves. Things like Mechanics' Institutes existed, so the leisure time didn't just go on entertainment or preening oneself, as the "smirky popinjay" had done.

I actually consider this sort of lifestyle to be an abuse of past achievements by the human race, but it does very well illustrate our potential for laziness and self indulgence - and there are times when exactly those are what are required (e.g. as part of a healing process). In fact, laziness can lead to great efficiency (not the sort of efficiency you see in certain joke emails, the sort of efficiency where clear thinkers actually consume less energy than those who are confused or unclear in their thinking processes, and genuinely better ways of doing things).

If, on the other hand, the behaviour is a problem, then I suspect the chaos part of life will lead to something that will throw a spanner in the works. In modern times, for the well-off portion of the world's population, such spanners probably arrive in the form of wars or economic crises (such as the aforementioned Great Depression and the GFC, or the Oil Crisis of the 70s) - or even personal crises, which can range from missing a rent or bill payment to life changing events such as illness [4] . If nothing else, enough social and personal misery will lead to some change - as illustrated by some of the "back to Nature" and "Simplify Life" movements of now and the past.

This is also where far sighted and motivated individuals have a role to play. Those who are despairing of the current spiritual state of the world should take heart from past examples, such as Buddha and Christ (the latter before the neo-Christianity thing got going). Even in the darkest of times, change is possible. It just may take some time and effort.

On that, the abolition of slavery is a good example. This is something that had been with us for millennia, and it took centuries to reduce slavery to the current level of occurrence (it isn't gone yet). Centuries? Yes. Although some may know of the work of the Quakers < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quakers > in England in the late 17th Century, which is where many anti-slavery movements seem to trace their precedents to, the first anti-slavery law was actually in Spain in 1542.

If we look at the move to get women voting rights (never mind equal rights to stand for election, protection against discrimination, etc - and noting that not all women have this basic right, and even in Europe this struggle continued to 1990), many people know about the suffragettes, but perhaps fewer know of the earlier work, such as (quoting from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage):
"A movement for women's suffrage originated in France in the 1780s and 1790s, where Antoine Condorcet and Olympe de Gouges advocated women's suffrage in national elections."

As a personal example, I have had people congratulate the lobby organisation i was part of for our successes in late 90s, not realising that our efforts were built on several decades of work by other, sadly unacknowledged people.

If I look at these people in the context of the chaos that is humanity, the aim now is to provide education (I love the 60s and 70s consciousness raising, and think it is still needed - which is where things like "Blue eyes, Brown Eyes" comes in) as much as inspiration, and get a groundswell of people to change their ways. The environment is probably a clear example of that, where, in the decades since Rachel Carson's pivotal work in the 60s, green movements have slowly developed, grown, adjusted, and now have even been elected to form Governments. It's a terrible, terrible tragedy that we've gone backwards on this in Australia at the last Commonwealth election, but that is partly a combination of the Greens still being at a relatively early stage, the Labor party being such a complete shambles, and the legacy of John Howard's nurturing of fear.

So ... overall, life seems to be two steps forward, one back, two forward, slip to the side, and so on. There are influences that can be described as entropic, in my view, but I actually consider much that seems to be entry to actually be simple human failings such as laziness, lack of vision, lack of self discipline, distraction, and so on.

Into this mix, however, come a few brave souls who struggle against the massive mix of fault and entropy, and strive to lift us all - and they thereby serve both Life and Spirit, and prevent this world being "an isolated system".



[3] I had planned on including some commentary about the alleged decay of humans from the days of “the Noble Savage”, although I was intending to refer back to gatherer-hunter societies (e.g. the proliferation of sugar, and the notion that laying on a beach can be a holiday), but it got too complicated to fit this in - and it can be argued in several ways, which is what happens when comparing the chaos of the Cro-Magnon times with the chaos of modern humanity … although the times in-between have often been much worse than both. As an example of that, an article by Steven Pinker in the June/July 2013 edition of “Cosmos” which points out that the first decline in violence happened during the transition from “the anarchy of hunter-gatherer societies” (sic) to “the first agricultural civilisations with cities and governments, which began to emerge around 5,000 years ago”. Forensic archaeology indicates that, at that time, death rates from violence declined from 15% to 3%. Furthermore, the article states “From the late Middle Ages to the 20th century, European countries experienced a 10- to 50-fold decline in homicide rates”, and a side bar states “the Women’s Rights movement helped reduce the rate of rape in the U.S. by 80% since 1973”. There are things that are worse about our sedentary, indoors-focused lifestyle, but there are things that are better, as well. See “The Better Angels of Our Nature : Why Violence Has Declined“.

Have a look also at:
[4] Actually, a speculation I've had is that, now we're "civilised", environmentalists and (good [5] ) economists are doing one of the jobs that Nature used to do, which is teach us humility. I shudder every time I hear someone refer to "conquering Nature", or proofing against drought or flood or something else. We haven't seen the worst that Nature can do yet, not by  long shot, and we should remember that. Failing that, being reminded, for instance, that we (a) can't afford to build a dam so big that it does truly drought proof us, and (b) that the size of the dam would make for significant environmental and water quality problems anyway, is a good thing.

[5] I consider Andrew Leigh to be a good economist: he is focused on access to and use of resources in a way that is human (e.g., inclusion of social capital). The old economic rationalists of the 90s were the worst of economists - they destroyed society's fabric, and completed the tearing of humanity out of governance that had started a few decades earlier. 

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")

Love, light, hugs and blessings




Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux?)

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag.
  • One size does NOT fit all. 
  • May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
  • Ban the dream interpretation industry! 
  • A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
  • The secret to being (financially) rich is not to have lots of money: it is to have an income above the poverty line, and then make whatever sacrifices are necessary in order to live within 90% of your means.  
  • Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
  • "Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
  • Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
  • The means shape the end.  
  • Sometimes you just can't argue with a biped that is armed with a sharp stick, a thick head and not too much in the way of grunts.
  • As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
  • Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living. 
  • One of the basics of serious spiritual / psychic work is that the greatest work is that which we do on ourself, which seems trivial to many. Our own Innermost Essence, which is our Higher Self / Soul / Spirit, has the power to do so much, and is actively participating in the creation and sustenance of this physical reality. Some mote of our conscious or unconscious knows that, which is why we seem inclined to be dismissive of Self Mastery - which is a bit like the child who sees an adult spending money to buy toys, and fails to recognise the daily grind of work which has led to having the money. 
  • My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi". However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 
Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent. Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious. JANE ELLIOTT 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech)
Tags: attitudes, change, chaos, evolution, personal characteristics, personal responsibility, science, society,

First published: Laugardagr, 28th September, 2013

Last edited: Saturday,
28th September, 2013

Saturday 21 September 2013

Post No. 474 - Rituals - Sabbat and (belated) full moon

One of the projects I started some time ago was writing a complete set of rituals for Esbats and Sabbats. I haven't completed those yet, but I've written a few more, which you can find here. The Full Moon was in Pisces, for which you can find a ritual here, and, of course, we have Ostara in the Southern Hemisphere, and Mabon in the north - for which combination you can find a ritual here.

And, of course, today was the day for the Be the Peace rituals.

I am planning on doing a few reminders for these rituals, now that I've found the "schedule publication" feature: they'll just be brief reminders and links, a week or so before the Sabbats, and whenever I can think of them for the Esbats.

I'll also eventually complete my rituals based on the Koori seasons, and do little reminders for them as well.

Enjoy :)

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")

Love, light, hugs and blessings



Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux?)

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag.
  • One size does NOT fit all. 
  • May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
  • Ban the dream interpretation industry! 
  • A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
  • The secret to being (financially) rich is not to have lots of money: it is to have an income above the poverty line, and then make whatever sacrifices are necessary in order to live within 90% of your means.  
  • Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
  • Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
  • The means shape the end.  
  • Sometimes you just can't argue with a biped that is armed with a sharp stick, a thick head and not too much in the way of grunts.
  • As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
  • Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living. 
  • One of the basics of serious spiritual / psychic work is that the greatest work is that which we do on ourself, which seems trivial to many. Our own Innermost Essence, which is our Higher Self / Soul / Spirit, has the power to do so much, and is actively participating in the creation and sustenance of this physical reality. Some mote of our conscious or unconscious knows that, which is why we seem inclined to be dismissive of Self Mastery - which is a bit like the child who sees an adult spending money to buy toys, and fails to recognise the daily grind of work which has led to having the money. 
  • My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi". However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
 Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech)

Tags:

First published: Laugardagr, 21st September, 2013

Last edited: Saturday, 21st September, 2013

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Post No. 473 - International Day of Peace and Be the Peace

This Saturday, 21st September, is the International Day of Peace, which is a United Nations initiative. In addition, for this year's International Day of Peace, an organisation is organising a "Global-Synchronized Meditation and Prayer for Peace" - actually, apparently they did so last year as well, and had 248 cities involved. See their website at http://bethepeace.com/.

I think this is a terrific idea, and am glad that they had arranged a range of times so people in various parts of the planet have a realistic chance to join in - although I do wish people would think more about the building up a wave of energy rolling round the globe, rather than trying to have a big but static event (and they've got no contact details that I could find that I can access, so I can't suggest this to them ... ). Ah well, better than nothing, and going by the scale of last year's event, could certainly be big enough to make a real contribution - at a time when such contributions are well and truly needed.

I urge you, Dear Reader, to consider being part of this event. 


[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")

Love, light, hugs and blessings


Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux?)

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag.
  • One size does NOT fit all. 
  • May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
  • Ban the dream interpretation industry! 
  • A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
  • The secret to being (financially) rich is not to have lots of money: it is to have an income above the poverty line, and then make whatever sacrifices are necessary in order to live within 90% of your means.  
  • Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
  • Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
  • The means shape the end.  
  • Sometimes you just can't argue with a biped that is armed with a sharp stick, a thick head and not too much in the way of grunts.
  • As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
  • Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living. 
  • One of the basics of serious spiritual / psychic work is that the greatest work is that which we do on ourself, which seems trivial to many. Our own Innermost Essence, which is our Higher Self / Soul / Spirit, has the power to do so much, and is actively participating in the creation and sustenance of this physical reality. Some mote of our conscious or unconscious knows that, which is why we seem inclined to be dismissive of Self Mastery - which is a bit like the child who sees an adult spending money to buy toys, and fails to recognise the daily grind of work which has led to having the money. 
  • My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi". However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
 Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech)

Tags: peace,

First published: Tysdagr, 17th September, 2013

Last edited: Tuesday, 17th September, 2013

Sunday 15 September 2013

Post No. 472 - Ban the dream interpretation industry ... and speculation on "humours"

Nice, provocative title, isn't it - "ban the dream interpretation industry"? (I added the bit about humours later, after I had started this ...) Of course, I am rather reluctant to ban anything, but I DO consider that the ubiquitous idiotic bloody notion that dreams (see here and here [2] for more on dreams) are "messages from our subconscious" (see here and here [2]) needs to be reined in.

Dreams are mostly garbled memories of astral travel (see here and here [2] and here, and quite a few places in Lobsang Rampa's books).

We are ALL more than just blood and bone and electrical impulses: we also have a non-physical body (well, several, actually), and when we sleep, not only do the body recharge and the brain reset (is that like the urban myth of having to turn smart phones off once a week? :) ), our spirit renews itself by going back to the astral - well, those who have evolved before a bare minimum do at any rate.

The ubiquitous view that dreams are not that actively ROBS us of so much of our birthright -  not just the chance to sensibly use precognition (which I have written about elsewhere  see here, here), but also the chance to develop lucid dreaming (see here and here: it basically means becoming aware of the fact that you are dreaming while you are dreaming, and thus being able to direct your "dream"), and thus exercise and develop a key part of our psychic potential, the part that will be most directly used when we pass over. And how stupid it is to pass that opportunity over.

Naropa talks of what can be done here in one of his yoga's (see here [2] and here), as does Joan Grant in her books (particularly "Winged Pharaoh"), but also Katherine  Kerr's book "The Black Raven", which I am currently reading, hints at the work required to master working with your dreams.

And maybe that's the problem - the work. We are a lazy lot, generally, and someone saying "hey it's OK, you don't have to do anything, just listen/read this and this is what it all means"(i.e. - dream interpretation - which I have NEVER encountered with ANY sort of statement or inference that something needs to be done) is probably going to have wider appeal than someone saying "hey, that actually means something significant, and things may NOT be OK, so you might have to get off your backside and do something about something" - which is what this and my related posts are about. (Post Script - maybe that is why so many people have a problem accepting things like psychic attack ... the world is a simpler, less scary place if all you have to focus on is your own growth needs, rather than also taking into consideration the fact that we all impact on each other - not just for bad, also for good - and, at higher levels of reality, we really are all connected together ... )

On that point of work, don't forget: tonight (i.e. Sunday) at 9 PM (my apologies - the 9-30 PM was in error) your time, let's meditate on peace.

I've added the main topic of this post to my signature block, in the "provocative quotations" section.

There's another topic from Katherine  Kerr's book "The Black Raven" that I am thinking about: that of the ancient idea of "humours" in relation to health. This goes back to the Ancient Greek (and older) idea of the world being created from four elements, which seems to be the basis of the four worldly elements (plus aether) used in much modern Western magickal work (also see here, and follow the discussions through), but was also used in medicine up to the Middle Ages (see here, and here). Now, there is no doubt in my mind that modern medicine addresses physical health FAR better than medical theory from a few hundred years ago, but I wonder if there is something from the humours theory of medicine that could be applied to the health of our etheric body? After all, I consider that to be where our meridians are mainly connected to, and the Asian idea of the five elements (see here, here, here and here) explains what is happening with those quite well ...

Just another thought :)

Don't forget: tonight, 9 PM (my apologies - the 9-30 PM was in error).

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")

Love, light, hugs and blessings


Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux?)

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project, and here for my bindrune kit-bag.
  • One size does NOT fit all. 
  • May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
  • Ban the dream interpretation industry! 
  • A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
  • The secret to being (financially) rich is not to have lots of money: it is to have an income above the poverty line, and then make whatever sacrifices are necessary in order to live within 90% of your means.  
  • Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
  • Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
  • The means shape the end.  
  • Sometimes you just can't argue with a biped that is armed with a sharp stick, a thick head and not too much in the way of grunts.
  • Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living. 
  • One of the basics of serious spiritual / psychic work is that the greatest work is that which we do on ourself, which seems trivial to many. Our own Innermost Essence, which is our Higher Self / Soul / Spirit, has the power to do so much, and is actively participating in the creation and sustenance of this physical reality. Some mote of our conscious or unconscious knows that, which is why we seem inclined to be dismissive of Self Mastery - which is a bit like the child who sees an adult spending money to buy toys, and fails to recognise the daily grind of work which has led to having the money. 
  • My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi". However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.


True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW


Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech)

People I'm currently following or reading, or have considerable respect for, include:
You can find news sources I use here

Tags: astral travel, consciousness, dreams, elements, levels, Lobsang Rampa, meridians, personal responsibility, planes of existence,

First published: Sunnudagr, 15th September, 2013

Last edited: Sunday, 15th September, 2013

Monday 9 September 2013

Post No. 471 - Update and public talk on "the means shapes the end"

Yesterday I gave another public talk at the Spiritualist Temple, which is copied in below. Before I get in to that, however, I want to talk about a couple of key updates I have made.

Firstly, I have updated my pagans for peace project post, at http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/pagans-for-peace-introduction.html. This now begins:

Post Script
I am now aiming to meditate on peace regularly every Sunday evening at 9 P.M. My intention is to get a wave of energy rolling round the planet, which is intended to tie in to the energy created by those following the ideas channelled by Phyllis V. Sclemmer (see the paragraph highlighted in green under Commitment Level 5 below) and both contribute to those energies and help them to spread around the world.

The technique I will be using is:

As part of establishing protection, I will probably use the following ...
I have also updated a post that post refers to: the post where I introduced the topic of Talismanic Tetrahedrons: the update is to add most of my workshop notes that I've been using for a couple of years on this topic - I left off the Appendices, and cut out some of the minor figures. The updated post is still at the same link - http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com.au/2009/12/talismanic-tetrahedrons.html.

And now, that talk, which was inspired by Marion Zimmer Bradley's [1] "Heartlight".

The Means Shapes the End

There is a saying that “the end justifies the means”, and I’d like to begin this talk by encouraging you to think about this.
Now, there are quite a few interpretations of this.
One that I am reasonably comfortable with is that great goals deserve great efforts. If someone is trying to end world poverty, or world hunger or thirst, for instance, that is both a noble, meaning spiritually valid, goal, and a very, very, very large undertaking. If they are going to have any hope of realistically achieving it, they need to make a massive effort.
Of course, if they are trying to achieve something like world domination, or resurrection of the Melbourne Football Club, those are also very large undertakings, but perhaps less spiritually noble ... and perhaps less likely to be successful in the case of the Melbourne Football Club.
Another interpretation of the saying “the end justifies the means” one that I am not so comfortable with, is that it means sometimes one has to do things that are morally questionable, in order to achieve a goal that is for the benefit of others.
If I take an example of this from public life, mergers of companies often come with redundancies - sackings, in other words. To those people who lose their work, the merger has been a complete disaster. To the managers who arranged it, however, if the outcome is a more efficient, more profitable company, they will consider the pain they had along the way acceptable - particularly if most shareholders say they are happy with the final outcome at the annual general meeting.
The managers and the happy shareholders would say “the end justified this means”, but a lot of other people directly involved in the situation wouldn’t.
Let’s consider a couple of other examples of this second interpretation of “the end justifies the means”, the view that anything necessary should be done to achieve “worthy” goals.
I’ll draw the next one from my political lobbying experience, well over a decade ago now. I had been what is called a co-convenor of a particular lobby group. We achieved, after several years of intense effort, building on a couple of decades of efforts by many very capable and talented people before us, the most urgent changes to the law that were needed for our community, a community that was, at the time, quite unprotected, and still remains subject to the terrible effects of discrimination. A decade ago, when we had our initial success, I was exhausted and nearly broke from funding things like massive phone bills, so I retired from that role - as did my other co-convenor.
With quite some difficulty, we found a couple of people to replace us, and sailed off happily, if metaphorically on the part of my friend, into the sunset. I was living on a boat at the time, and could, of course, sail off into any sunset – or sunrise – I wished … subject to the state of tide.
Going back to the lobby group, unfortunately, things started to go awry after we left.
The problem was that one of the new co-convenors decided that the goals of the group were so special, so worthy, that it was acceptable to start being controversial, to start being deliberately provocative.
Now, there are times when that can work. In the late 60s and early 70s, when sexism was a major problem in society, and many places didn’t even have anti-discrimination laws, some women’s right activists started off effectively asking for equal power with men in society, and were told “no, no, no, we think 30% of power to women is enough”. In response, they started the campaign for “all power to women” - and, in response to that, those who had been blithely prepared to give 50% of the population only 30% of the power suddenly said “no, no, no, 50% is OK”.
In the case of the new co-convenor at the lobby group in the early 2000s, however, the campaign was based on an idea which disenfranchised - don’t you just love that word? I do - took me long enough to find the spelling in the dictionary. Anyway, the campaign cut out some of the people the group was supposed to be representing. I won’t go into details, but it would be a little bit like an indigenous rights lobby group deciding to exclude indigenous people living in a city or town.
The result of the new co-convenor’s campaign was some extremely unhappy supporters, and politicians who were very bemused by the sudden irrationality in this lobby group. Fortunately, that particular person left that role relatively quickly, and the group was saved by my former co-convenor.
In this case, no-one would have said “the end justified this means”, but the flawed co-convenor had clearly thought that it did. 
OK, let’s look at a third example of the interpretation of “the end justifies the means” that sometimes one has to do things that are morally questionable, in order to achieve a goal that is for the benefit of others - and this one is going to be pure invention.
Well, if it’s not quite pure invention, the names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Let’s say you want to, start a new spiritual organisation - perhaps the Elvis is Alive Mediumship Society. If you go about promoting this group ruthlessly, and perhaps in ways that are quite underhanded, you may gain a large membership, but perhaps at the expense of other, existing spiritual groups.
Now the question would have to be asked, is that necessarily a bad thing?
I tend towards loyalty, so my initial reaction would be, yes, that is taking from other groups, and I’d probably chuck in the word “unfairly”.
But that isn’t necessarily the case.
IF the Elvis is Alive Mediumship Society actually met the spiritual needs of those people who had changed their memberships more effectively, then perhaps it is not a bad thing … but what if they were coerced, or misled in some way?
And it is at this point, nearly half way through my talk, that I would like to introduce the saying that I wish to discuss today, and that is, that “the means shape the end”.
To illustrate that, let’s consider the Elvis is Alive Mediumship Society. If the formation of that group involved any coercion, or any underhandedness, perhaps rumours and gossip about existing groups, then no matter how many members it has, or how well it meets their spiritual needs, the group would be tainted by the moral corruption of the methods they had used.
That’s a bit of a heavy phrase, isn’t it, “moral corruption”?
I generally avoid using it, and will continue to avoid using it, because it has been so misused by so many people in so many situations. It’s a little like the swastika. The true swastika is actually a very holy Hindu sign, and represents life itself. It’s part of the Theosophical Society’s logo, for anyone who is interested. The Nazi’s actually used a modified version of the swastika, but they created such a powerful connection with evil by their use of that modified swastika, that I doubt anyone would be able to use the swastika for positive purposes for many decades, and possibly centuries.
In the same way, that phrase “moral corruption” has been misused by so many people to discriminate against those who are different in some way, that I consider it cannot be used without a taint of the negative energy associated with that misuse.
And that is exactly what I am talking about with the Elvis is Alive Mediumship Society: any misdeeds done during the group’s formation, would create a link to the negativity of those misdeeds, and that negative link would undermine, would niggle at, what they are trying to achieve - even if it was spiritually worthy.
OK, so that’s the third example I used to illustrate the original saying, “the end justifies the means”, now looked at from the point of view of the reworded saying, “the means shape the end”. Let’s look at the other two examples I used.
The second example was that of lobbying. If one wanted to argue that “the end justifies the means”, an example of the risks one could take would be to, perhaps, lobby only one side of politics. The view here would be that getting change was so important, it was best to pick the most likely way to get that change, and just do it.
The problem with that, and it was a problem we discussed before we did anything, back in the 90s, would be that you risk having the other side of politics, at a change of government, repealing the changes you had successfully lobbied for.
So in this case, what you had seemingly achieved, could be a false thing. On the other hand, if you approached the goal properly, doing things like educating everyone and gently bringing them along with you, then you would be more likely to get a lasting, beneficial, effective change.
In this case, where everyone had been educated and brought gently along a path of growth, it is likely most people would have said “that end justified the means”, although what had really been applied was the idea that “the means shape the end”.
The first example I mentioned was that of a companies being merged together. This is something I actually know a fair bit about, as I started working in the water industry in Victoria in the 80s, as the Cain Government started to reduce water authorities from over 400 to around 184, which was then taken down to the current situation by the Kennett Government in the 90s.
This caused a recession in the water industry, and, at the same time, the company I worked for was bought by another company, which was the first of four takeovers and acquisitions I experienced. In the course of doing that, I saw the best and the worst of how companies can approach this.
If they approach it thinking only of shareholders and profit, their management of people is generally abysmal. If, on the other hand, they do so openly acknowledging that there will be change, and genuinely committing to helping people deal with that change, the end result is better all round. The goals of improved profit are achieved, but with far less personal stress to many workers.
Sadly, that doesn’t apply to all the workers caught up in such events, but if they’re surrounded by co-workers who, because they’re not also stressed and worried sick are able to be supportive, well, that’s still better than when everyone is worried sick.
I have to say that this has been handled well only once in my experience – by an American company, for what it’s worth.
I’d now like to move this topic out further, to consider some fairly low key everyday life matters.
Let’s say you do something like … take a car parking space that someone else had been waiting for. You may be in a hurry, perhaps for a toilet, or in need of that space because the disabled parking spaces are all full - probably of people who don’t have permits - and you can’t walk from the spaces further away.
If you just dive in, and then treat the person who was waiting dismissively, I would hope that your conscience would bother you. Even if it didn’t, however, you would have both the irritation of that other person, and the negative karma you had created, coming back into your life in some way.
So you got the car park and the convenience, but at what cost? Feeling guilty or stressed? Having someone else do the same, or similar to you at some future time?
As a digression, on that point of the karma coming back to you, I heard an excellent comment on assessing how much karma one has accumulated, in a talk like this one, a few decades ago. The speaker said, if you do something relatively minor, like cut someone off in traffic, how long does it take before someone else cuts you off in traffic? If that is returned within a few days, or perhaps a week or so, it means that you aren’t working through too much of a backlog of negative karma, but if you go a few years and no-one has cut you off yet … well, you’ve got a problem or two.
With that example, keep in mind that karma applies to positive things as well. I haven’t tried doing something nice and tracking how long it is before it comes back to me, but I’m not so worried about that side of the karmic equation anyway.
Going back to the saying “the means shape the end”, in the case of this example of taking a car parking space, you could actually have tried asking – “Hi, I can’t get a disabled space but I’m going to have trouble if I park further out. Would you mind if I took that space instead of you?”
It might work.
And on “the means shape the end”, I’d like to mention a saying from the training of another spiritual group, one that follows a different path to that of Spiritualism. That saying is: “do not be trifling, even in little things”. There is a whole wealth of reasoning behind that, drawing on several sets of philosophy – including Zen, so I won’t try to explain that fully now, but in terms of the notion that “the means shape the end”, it is useful. If you do something with loving care and attention, and strive to make it the best you can, then it will be infused with loving energies and, even if it is not perfect, the love is going to help it along the way.
If you make a cake with love, it will taste – or seem to taste - better than a cake made using the same recipe, but made with resentment or grudgingly.
In more complicated matters, remembering that “the means shape the end”, rather than trying to use “the end justifies the means” to justify taking a short-cut or approaching things in a dodgy way, may mean doing things in ways that can be tedious, difficult, or downright challenging.
If we consider the founding of the Elvis is Alive Mediumship Society, then doing it properly would involve talking to a lot of people, letting people know what you’re thinking of doing and working out how to get them to think about the things they have to think about, and doing a lot of travelling, meeting, listening, talking, considering. Maybe, as an outcome, it would lead to joint memberships, and working together to find out who is best suited to which group – as is done here, when determining who should go to which development circle. 
It all reminds me a bit of the lobby group I referred to earlier, where we dealt with politicians, media, and those we were representing, a group that is still extremely vulnerable, and still has a problem with suicide from discrimination, our community, was probably our harshest set of critics, but also our greatest source of strength.
Trying to act in accordance with the principle that “the means shape the end” is incredibly difficult at times, but it also leads to a better result – the energy is better, as I’ve discussed, but the skills and knowledge accessed, and the views considered, are also more comprehensive and informative. In that lobby group, by remembering that “the means shape the end” we avoided what would have been catastrophic mistakes, took a very well guided path, and achieved our goals in a lasting way. In fact, what we did was used as a model, not just by other states, but other nations. Personally, I also learned a great deal, and, more recently, those skills have been used with my work at the other spiritual group I am part of, the Tel’Ennyn Asur, which is young and doing a lot of sorting out of systems.
Those same skills are also used every day, in all that I do, not just in the “big” things these sayings are usually associated with.
I would, however, like to finish with a thought that is aimed at those “big things”: if the goal is something so big, so important, so momentous, that you could possibly consider it justified being unscrupulous, then surely it also justifies being scrupulous.
Thank you.

PS - some of this overlaps a comment I made in my recent reading post:
"I am contemplating posting about those well meaning, patronising idiots who think it is acceptable to use wrong pronouns to stimulate a "discussion" on being trans ... or even just refer to trans matters outright ... the people I've buried because of idiots like those"


[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy")

Love, light, hugs and blessings


Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux?)

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project, and here for my bindrune kit-bag.
  • One size does NOT fit all. 
  • May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
  • A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
  • The secret to being (financially) rich is not to have lots of money: it is to have an income above the poverty line, and then make whatever sacrifices are necessary in order to live within 90% of your means.  
  • Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
  • Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. 
  • The means shape the end.  
  • Sometimes you just can't argue with a biped that is armed with a sharp stick, a thick head and not too much in the way of grunts.
  • Spiritual love is far more than just an emotion - it is a concept, thoughts, actions and a way of living. 
  • One of the basics of serious spiritual / psychic work is that the greatest work is that which we do on ourself, which seems trivial to many. Our own Innermost Essence, which is our Higher Self / Soul / Spirit, has the power to do so much, and is actively participating in the creation and sustenance of this physical reality. Some mote of our conscious or unconscious knows that, which is why we seem inclined to be dismissive of Self Mastery - which is a bit like the child who sees an adult spending money to buy toys, and fails to recognise the daily grind of work which has led to having the money. 
  • My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi". However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.


True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW


Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech)

People I'm currently following or reading, or have considerable respect for, include:
You can find news sources I use here

Tags: action, motivation, peace, talismanic tetrahedrons,

First published: Manadagr, 9th September, 2013

Last edited: Monday, 9th September, 2013