Post No. 2,594 - Some interesting reading/viewing [Content Warning - specific subjects for each link]

Here are some links that might of interest or value:

• I didn’t link to posts on my political blog last week, so here’s a bit of a catch up: 
• “The savagery of white supremacism in Australia [Content Warning - racism, white supremacism]”;   “A follow up to “The savagery of white supremacism in Australia”: Effects [Content Warning - racism, white supremacism]”;   “Some good LGBTQIASB+ news reports - some very surprising”;   “On the media”;   “From the news [Note: Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence/abuse/war. Reader discretion is advised]”;   “Some articles by a doctor in support of a Yes vote”;   ““80,000 hours” has updated their career guide”;   “From recent news on global politics [Content Warning - also for discrimination]”;   “From recent news on First People’s issues [Content Warning - discrimination]”;   “From recent news on human rights issues - particularly TGD and LGBTQIA+ [Content warning: discrimination]”;   “From recent news on [Content Warning] the climate crisis and humanitarian matters”;   “From the media on governance mistakes [Content Warning: discussion on suffering and self harm, links to articles on brutality and violence]”;   “White supremacists reach new lows”;   “An excellent response to a particularly clueless remark by an arrogant overentitled patriarchal rich person”;   “Good and TERRIBLE (unacceptable [Content Warning] threats of violence) responses to a bad comment about colonisation”;   “A media article worth particular focus: "War is not Inevitable, and Social Scientists are Finding Peace Movements more Effective"”;   “More positive news about the Voice”;   “From the news: on communication”;   “From the news: on the Voice and First Peoples matters”;   “The magnate is gone ... here’s the next magnate”;  
  
• "Global corporate power is ‘out of control’, but reports of democracy’s death are greatly exaggerated"   https://theconversation.com/global-corporate-power-is-out-of-control-but-reports-of-democracys-death-are-greatly-exaggerated-210270;
• a presentation to MUFON by Mr  Grant  Cameron on the topic of the “Skinwalker  Ranch” (see also here): https://youtu.be/FvH2Z3jIXYQ?si=-zNyhuJw2JSBFvm6;
• this week’s “afterlife report” by the  Zammits. 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below, and there’s also Instagram and Mastodon.

Vote Yes for the Voice in Australia - see this backgrounder.  

Finally, remember: we generally need to be more human being rather than human doing, and to mind our Mӕgan.

 

Post No. 940 - Thoughts on Fixing the Environment

On of the biggest sources of adverse impact on the environment is from the lifestyles of people in developed nations (aka "the West", or "the North" + Australia). One of the simplest and quickest ways for those of us who live there to fix that impact is to simplify our lives.

As an example, consider coffee. It has become fashionable for snobs (incidentally, whenever anyone says they are an "X" snob, e.g., a coffee snob, I ALWAYS delete the "X") to use coffee pods: there has been a little information about the environmental damage from disposal of the pods, but there has been no discussion about the EMBEDDED GREENHOUSE GASES THAT WENT INTO MANUFACTURING THE MACHINERY AND THE PODS - and that, along with the warping of people's psyches / souls that goes with adopting the trappings of snobbery, is where the greatest damage is.

This is another reason that large houses and large cars are so bad, no matter how energy efficient they may be in usage: they use more energy and resources, and thus create more greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, than smaller houses and cars. Now, in the bad old days, things were perhaps too small - for instance, when families typically had four or more kids (in the 1930s), the kids may have had to share rooms or even beds, and I don't think the situation was for the psychological good of all people, but people FITTED.

Nowadays, we THINK we need more space - partly because we have more useless or unnecessary stuff, and partly to "keep up with the Jones". The truth is, we don't, in most cases. Also, many large cars come with an arrogance that puts other people's lives at risk: we may well be better off if we all felt more vulnerable in smaller cars and thus drove more safely. (Better car design for all sizes would help, and there are taller people who need more space.)

We also don't need the flash (fancy) finishes, features and the like.

There are some valid extra needs - for instance, computers.

On that, there are limitations in some of the stuff that is now available - for instance, e-book readers. I would like to have one of those, but they have a SERIOUS AND SUBSTANTIAL FLAW: the books you have on your e-book reader can be deleted by the supplier, if they consider you have done something wrong (which is reasonable, if you have in fact done something wrong), but if you are found NOT to have done something wrong, not only do they not replace the collection, they don't have to. Hence, until that flaw is properly remedied, I will continue to limit myself to PDFs and hard copies.

This undue focus on GHGs is probably most apparent when considering things like passive solar design. Passive solar design has a lot of flaws - e.g., it fails to keep low sun out of the house in the morning and afternoon of hot days, it doesn't provide heating in the morning on winter days when people have to get up and get ready for school, in the suburbs the whole approach can be nullified by a neighbour building a "McMansion" or having evergreen shade trees, etc. It has some decided advantages as well, but we need active solar and geostabilisation, as well as decent heat mass and insulation - which is something I hope to post about in the not too distant future. The point about passive solar's flaws, is that for the sake of liveability, many people have air conditioning or heating for the events that passive solar doesn't cope with. And they think that such is fine, that they've somehow "earned" it by saving power the rest of the time - which, if they know even a little bit about utilities, is stupid beyond all measure.

The basis for which utility systems are designed and built (and thus the amount of GHGs they generate during construction - i.e., the quantity of embedded GHGs) is based upon PEAK demand: the size of water pipes is set by summer demands, which are higher than in winter, for instance. Power generating stations and distribution networks are sized to cater for the peak demand - often, in Australia, the hottest days. As another example, there are some progressive Environment Protection Authorities which set environmental limits on discharges not by concentration (mg/L - aka ppm) but by total mass (aka "weight"), which shows how significant discharges under peak flow conditions are.

All of this means that things like passive solar may reduce the operational GHGs (and operating costs), but the embedded GHGs (and construction costs) are untouched by such approaches - they are, however, helped by things which do address peak demand, such as geostabilisation to cool houses, distributed water tanks on potable water networks (which are a standard feature, by the way), and household solar power generation - which generates more power when it is needed.

So, if you are living in a developed/industrialised/consumeristic society, and you wish to do something for the environmental welfare of the plant, then I suggest:

• simplify your life; and 
• encourage others to do likewise - including clearing any nonBPM units stopping them doing so and strengthening BPM units.

Post No. 799 - Thoughts from a heat wave

We really are going to have to build better houses. The thought that, in a hot region one doesn’t have to think of heating, or in a cold region one doesn’t have to think of cooling, has always been utterly moronic – the coldest I have ever felt was in Brisbane, a sub-tropical city, and some of the hottest times are here in Melbourne – the current heat wave is not one of those, but it is extremely taxing, nevertheless.

There is a presumption amongst too many that one deals with heat by turning up the air conditioning. Well, not all houses have air con, and, in any case, air conditioning uses a lot of power and thus stuffs up the planet!!! Are people really so stupid as to forget that –in this day and age, post the Paris climate agreement???

I have also come across an equally utterly moronic viewpoint that one can use passive solar design for both heating and cooling. Bull****. The air itself is HOT – having shade during the hottest part of the day, or cross-flow ventilation using 40°C+ air is NOT going to be cooling!!! I started this at 7AM, when the sun was low enough that it would be below the eaves of passive solar designs, and already the temperature is hot. Perhaps such advocates think they can rely on air conditioning for the more extreme events. Well, such an approach has the benefit of reducing greenhouse gases during other times, but to cope with the extreme power demand that such would generate, (a) power stations must be built with a very, very, very large capacity, (b) distribution systems must also be built with a very, very, very large capacity, and (c) based on my experience with peak events, the greenhouses gases generated during such an event can far outweigh the savings at other times.

There are better alternatives.

We, in Australia, need houses that are properly built – not brick veneer (when I was working in Mongolia, I spoke with a British ex-pat there, who had been through the -50°C winters there + freezing winters in the UK and Europe, and he said the coldest he had ever felt was in a brick veneer house in New South Wales, Australia), something with proper inherent insulation, something designed to cope with up to one full week of days with 50°C temperatures and nights that don’t get below 30°C – otherwise we are going to be killing the vulnerable, and generating greenhouse gases needlessly. The problems the establishment have with mud brick and rammed earth (Pisé de Terre) need to be overcome: I consider such problems similar to the problems that many engineers have with lagoons – a limited, but effective, low cost alternative, often better suited to developing nations than activate sludge and other high tech “solutions” –which is that it is not flash or fancy or “elegant” enough. That attitude is particularly pronounced in many (not all) researchers I have encountered, who want to work on something new, something they consider exciting, rather than something which appears simple, old and boring (I would love to have the opportunity to do some research on a series of test lagoons to answer the questions that I know, from my real-life practical experience, need to be answered).

(One of the other problems here is that many engineers tend to think, well, let’s see what we can get by fiddling with existing stuff, and thus get a few percent gain when a more radical change is needed. As an example, I know of cases – and I apologise for the jargon - where people have used filters to reduce nitrogen out of lagoons by around 10 – 15%, whereas they actually needed a biological polishing system to make the 50% reduction needed).

Geothermal heating/cooling, where air is circulated through buried pipes (using a solar/wind powered fan), thus using the Earth herself for heating and cooling, is, in my opinion, going to be an essential for the future.

There are technical issues to sort out – for example, the transfer mechanism needs to be by air flow alone, to avoid having to have high power compressors used in air conditioning, and that means the buried pipe system needs to be large enough to do its job without having to resort to the fluids used in our compact air conditioning systems. I’m aware some people use water: that would possibly be a good approach for large commercial buildings, but using air flow also means we can start using (relatively moderate – don’t ant to get into compressors) air expansion/contraction to make the transfer process more effective, but that needs a diagram I am too hot to think of preparing today.

We also need to go back to verandahs around the east, north and west side of all Australian houses, and to re-learn some of the older folk wisdom – such as coping with heat in Melbourne by keeping the house dark – close blinds (and, of course, windows) to keep the radiant heat OUT during the day, and then open up if the night air is cooler than inside the house. We also need to remember the obvious point of staying inside, out of heat – which means those who cannot do so, such as firefighters, ambulance workers, police and other essential service workers, are in my thoughts and concerns. Everyone else has no excuse. For more on this, see here, here, here (although that suffers from having a Queensland bias), here, here, and here.
Another couple of useful tricks are wetting teatowels, putting them in the freezer for a while, and then wrapping them around one's neck, and wrapping freezer blocks in a teatowel and using them to coll oneself. Don't use them without wrapping first, as you can actually get a form of burn. Also, before going to bed, put a few freezer blocks (wrapped again, but to control moisture, this time) in one's bed to cool the mattress before you get into it.

This post, incidentally, has been posted a couple of days after being written.

 

[1] BPM = Balanced Positive (spiritually) Mature. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here, here, 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").

[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be, and there are a lot of unwanted changes to layout made upon publishing, so I often have to edit it immediately after publishing to get the format as close to what I want as possible.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr, Pagan Energy Worker, Wéofodthegn

(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index 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 for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour, and see also here and be flexible.

The real dividing line is not between Christianity and Islam, Sunni and Shia, East and West. It is between people who believe in coexistence, and those who don’t.

Tom Fletcher, Former UK Ambassador to Lebanon

• If your “gut” (your instinct/intuition) is telling you something is wrong, but logic and the available evidence is saying otherwise, the proper conclusion to draw is that you need better, more personally credible evidence. Your “gut” could be wrong, right, or missing the nuances / “shades of grey” . So could the available evidence.
• All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Tags:climate change, environmental, housing, society,

First published: Manadagr, 21^st December, 2015

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Monday, 21^st December, 2015

Post No. 663 - Reading

G'day, hello, howdy, hi, zdravstvujtye (some of my work colleagues are Russian, including an absolutely invaluable administrator who has recently taken maternity leave - may she and young one and family be blest), guten tag (where I have connection owing to a recent past life), sveiki, czesc (I have friends, not just colleagues, at work who are Polish), bonjour (colleagues at a former workplace were French, and we practised and tried to extend my woeful and limited range of this language), selamat pagi (one of the best junior engineers I ever worked with was Malaysian, and she taught me a few words), annyeonghaseyo, pryvit, bitaem, como vai (a friend of mine a few years ago, although not Brazilian, had Portuguese ancestry), ¡Hola (a former work colleague and friend, a VERY talented artist - with a Mexican sensibility to her artwork, particularly around the Day of the Dead - used to teach me Mexican Spanish), Selamat pagi, ni hao (ah, my work trips to Asia, and the many wonderful, wonderful people I have met there - and some excellent work colleagues and friends here, as well), bongiorno (my current home city of Melbourne has lots of Greeks and Italians, who have made our culture far richer - and made us coffee snobs :) ), hoschakal, hejsan, ciao, jo napolt kivanu, chào bà, chào ông, yiassou (from the city which has, I understand, the largest collection of Greek people outside of Greece), ceau, salam wa aleikum, sawas dee ka, dia duit, hoi, hei, namaste, marhaba, dobry den.

 Welcome to my next reading links post :)

• http://www.theage.com.au/comment/build-your-kids-character-dont-just-give-them-stuff-20150204-135p2v.html;
• incarnational choice, with mention of clearing (by the name karmic disentanglement): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Go1wOtBqo;
• planes of existence, with an excellent comment that it is really a continuum, and some parallels to my concept of living in chakras, and “being in the right place”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YB8tCs0YYg;
• good - this had shades of SLAPP: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-05/tasmania-ditches-defamation-law-changes-after-public-backlash/6071438;
• http://scout22.com/news/4-jails-2-sewage-plants-40-living-poverty-one-dedicated-teacher/;
• http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/4/7982099/twitter-ceo-sent-memo-taking-personal-responsibility-for-the;
• some surprises about the racist origins of the so-called ‘War on Drugs’, and the deliberate breaches of law by its main architect, the little known but notorious, unscientific and, in my view, probably evil Harry Anslinger, who was supported by the equally appalling source of ‘yellow journalism’, sensationalist Rudolph Hearst: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/end-of-the-war-on-drugs/6080656;
• http://www.creativeminer.com/humans-thinking-like-machines/;
• some interesting links in this - and I will have to check out the claim that Jung originated the term “the Shadow” (it certainly matches what little I know of Jung). With apologies to those who cannot access LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/social-peacocking-shadow-caterina-fake;
• seemingly untrained abilities, probably from past life work, and some balancing comments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9laD9CdATDM;
• magickal associations with fingers (i.e., - digits, including thumb :) ): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMY3BG7TKWI;
• http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/questionsformen-why-i-started-the-pushback-against-sexist-double-standards-20150206-13762p.html;,   and   http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/women-managers-paid-up-to-45-less-than-their-male-peers-new-data-20150217-13gx8t.html;
• http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/doctors-speak-out-against-conditions-on-nauru-20150208-137xwd.html;
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/speaking-while-female-sheryl-sandberg-adam-grant?trk=pulse-det-nav_art;
• this article is a perfect example of the problems of sites being focused on the USA. I recall the survey in question, and being disappointed that I could not contribute to it. The implication seems to be that the rest of the world is different to the USA – which, if true, makes the article and the referenced article basically useless to the rest of the world … so … why did an INTERNATIONAL magazine publish it? US people, you need to get the blinkers off, and deal with this USA-centrism! http://wildhunt.org/2015/02/what-do-pagans-do-an-interview-with-dr-gwendolyn-reece.html;
• http://www.watoday.com.au/comment/why-almost-every-parent-falls-prey-to-smacking-their-child-20150211-13b80q.html;
• on judgementalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTijwBflyJ0, which reminds of the P. K. Shaw saying “Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand”. That also applies to oneself, and I have often thought that the rabid howls of people wanting criminals punished harshly is because they do not understand themselves (they have not done any shadow work), and thus fear that they could be lie that, and their howls are a form of diversion – “look over there”;
• the IDGAF tradition (warning: language): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB-BuqOmBUw;
• this has another wonderful saying by the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: http://www.anotherpaganblog.com/2014/10/darkness-cannot-drive-out-darkness-only.html;
• http://www.anotherpaganblog.com/2013/09/pagan-blog-project-s-is-for-smugness.html;
• http://www.anotherpaganblog.com/2014/12/just-typical-infj.html;
• http://windthroughtrees.blogspot.ca/2014/12/whats-in-face.html;
• potentially good idea: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-17/homeless-study-suggests-interventions-for-young-people/6122590?WT.ac=statenews_vic;
• this is very interesting: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/discovery-of-brain-pathway-could-lead-to-ways-to-prevent-blindness-20150216-13g4za.html;
• I take this latest definitive with a grain of salt: http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/why-you-should-never-eat-a-bacon-sandwich-what-you-can--and-cant--eat-20150217-13fk6l.html;
• http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2015/02/17/4181481.htm;
• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-03/scientists-seeking-to-save-world-find-best-technology-is-trees;
• when I read this, I gave a resounding YES! – although meditation is also a pathway to knowledge and perspective: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daughtersofeve/2015/02/meditation-the-path-to-spiritual-activism-or-escapism/. Likewise for these: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daughtersofeve/2015/01/magical-beginnings-begin-again/, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daughtersofeve/2014/12/memories-apologies-and-veneration/;
• http://wildhunt.org/2015/02/around-the-world-frances-billinghurst-and-the-australian-sacred-wheel.html;
• http://www.theage.com.au/queensland/cyclone-marcia-orange-sky-cleans-up-after-the-storm-20150221-13l7gr.html;
• http://www.upworthy.com/admit-it-you-wanted-to-act-just-like-her-wait-till-you-see-her-all-grown-up?c=hpstream;
• the suggestion in this that ‘misery loves company’ is the reason parents carry on about the alleged selfishness of others has, in my opinion, considerable validity. I have found many parents - including step parents - resent the apparent freedom and lower stress of those who choose not to have children. Furthermore, our world population is too large: it needs to reduce, and I have the horrible feeling that reducing the population by natural decline may be faster than changing our lifestyles and technologies to be more environmentally friendly: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/stress-the-hidden-cost-of-having-children-20150221-13k6cr.html;
• http://www.theage.com.au/comment/im-gay-and-i-want-my-kid-to-be-gay-too-20150222-13lg98.html;
• http://theconversation.com/we-need-women-on-boards-for-many-reasons-ethics-isnt-one-37472;
• http://www.theage.com.au/comment/were-doing-this-to-ourselves-ladies-20150222-13kfj3.html;
• http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/when-women-are-expected-to-take-care-of-the-office-housework-20150222-13lp48.html;
• so … are we now going to look at the pressures in society’s lifestyle?: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-25/anger-linked-to-heart-attacks-study-finds/6260490;
• the allegation that people need to interact with candidates is rubbish - I’ve never, ever seen a candidate at one of my polling places, in four decades of voting … but the procedural question is valid: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-25/palmer-united-party-election-challenge-sausage-sizzle-earlyvotes/6261478;
• some interesting comments on hair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daTqpJ9r50k;
• and thoughts and cautions around what are known as Genius Loci – spirits of a place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxMGlmae9Vg;
• I like sunflowers – and they’re spiritually uplifting, for me. Good community project: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sunflowers-in-full-bloom-in-the-middle-of-morwell-in-the-latrobe-valley-20150225-13oi5w.html;

On other matters:

• GOOD! http://www.theage.com.au/world/greek-leaders-ditch-ties-raise-eyebrows-among-europes-elite-20150204-136fgv.html;
• the allegations of not having an reason for failure to approve a plan is disingenuous at best, and at worst a blatant attempt by a private company to interfere in the workings of an elected government – which is a problem of Free Trade Agreements: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/link-consortium-plays-hard-ball-on-payments-20150210-13b000.html;
• this is a good example of why I will never visit the USA: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/comment-in-america-bias-wears-a-badge/article6902414.ece?homepage=true;
• http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/improved-security-behind-dropping-crime-rate-say-crims-20150211-13c8go.html;
• http://www.thehindu.com/elections/delhi2015/in-a-first-all-delhi-mlas-clean/article6883461.ece?homepage=true&utm_source=MostPopular&utm_medium=Homepage&utm_campaign=WidgetPromo;
• http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/pedestrian-killed-by-garbage-truck-at-intersection-of-collins-and-spencer-streets-20150217-13gokb.html,    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-17/pedestrian-killed-by-truck-at-busy-melbourne-cbd-intersection/6125980;   and   http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/experts-search-for-answers-as-pedestrian-deaths-rise-in-melbourne-20150217-13h2cs.html;
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-17/maggot-therapy-makes-comeback-as-medical-treatment-in-kenya/6077088;
• http://www.theage.com.au/comment/performance-reviews-get-rid-of-them-20150217-13gozk.html;
• http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/train-driver-stops-work-after-unauthorised-persons-on-track-near-toorak-20150222-13lncx.html;
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-22/thousands-of-australians-underpaid-denied-entitlements/6189802;
• http://www.theage.com.au/comment/national-security-measures-or-a-government-of-stalkers-20150223-13m68r.html;

[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light 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, Wéofodthegn

(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index 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 between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour, and see also here and be flexible.

I am a Walker upon the Path of Balanced Positivity, seeking Spiritual Maturity.

• neither eloquence nor inarticulateness inherently indicates correctness, but, 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.
• Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if  the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
• I mourn the desecration of the term 'Light Worker' by commercial interests, and the warping of the word 'Light' away from 'Clear Light' by the "(Fluffy) White Lighters".
• Presuming that everyone has, or wants, a smartphone is discriminatory, unspiritual, and downright stupid.
• Our entire life experience, with all the many wondrous and varied people, places and events in it, is too small a sample for statistical reliability about Life.
• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• Being accustomed to interacting via certain rules makes those rules neither right nor universal.
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
• The means shape the end.
• My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. 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.
• All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Human dignity is the inherently cumulative holistic combination of human rights, wellbeing and potential, and all actions or interaction which promote, realise or facilitate same. The converse also applies: whatever degrades, diminishes or robs humans of dignity, is inherently undignified.

Gnwmythr

The “purpose” of spiritual evolution is not the attainment of “spiritual perfection” - not in the sense of not having to evolve further, at any rate, since there is no such thing. We need to evolve in order to grow - but we can take rest breaks (hopefully well earned :) ) along the way. No, the “purpose” of evolution is, rather, to perfect our ability to learn, and thus grow.

Gnwmythr

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children

Antoine De Saint-Exupéry

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.

John F. Kennedy

Tags: adaptation to Australia, children, climate change, discrimination, meditation, psychism, reading, Sabbats, seasons, selfishness, shadow work, society, trees,

First published: Thorsdagr, 26^th February, 2015

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Thursday, 26^th February, 2015