Currently Shadows Are Security By As I Lay Dying see related

The Genesis of the Risen Glory

¹From the moment new blood joins the herd a life-long process begins; ²a process which subdues the individual and arrests the development of limitless possibilities.  ³One can never progress or evolve without experience, ⁴and as the herd is generally afraid of what they do not understand, disgrace, shame, guilt, and punishment - even the threat of "eternal punishment" - are used to rule over this new blood and mold him into a reverently fearful subject. 

⁵As the new blood is growing physically, he is being mentally manipulated to fit into the spot the herd has reserved for him.  ⁶He is promised free will, or the power to think for himself, ⁷but taking advantage of their forced ignorance upon him, his choices are limited to what the herd deems appropriate.  ⁸Eventually the new blood will begin to draw in on himself, ⁹and he is deprived of his own thoughts and nature through guilt - the greatest of all sins.

¹⁰There are a few who rise above the herd and question the limits placed upon him, ¹¹he refuses to relinquish his will to theirs and in response he is cast aside, ridiculed and dismissed as mentally unstable, ¹²or for the members of the herd who refuse to claim responsibility for themselves, he is labeled as possessed.  ¹³His immediate choices are difficult...hermitizim, conformity, loneliness.  ¹⁴But all of these choices leave one bitter, old and set apart.

¹⁵Rather than being set apart, let us, oh risen ones, redeem the time we have been thrown into.

Currently Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970-1978) By Black Sabbath see related

Honesty, Prophecy, Lions & Dragons.

I find myself lately ignoring a knocking at my soul's door.  A knocking that is constant, steady, unwavering, and very persistent.  I spend my days avoiding the feeling that wants so badly to enter my heart, for he feels at home there.  He is no stranger to me for we were once very close, but alas we had a falling out and it is not a relationship I wish to mend.

His soliciting never ceases, patiently he waits for me to open up to him and occasionally, out of his frustration at my rejecting his efforts to enter in, he proudly announces "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."  I cannot, at this point, avoid a sigh, I am very tired of this game he plays; he haunts me like a phantom, ever hanging and weighing on my soul, bringing my shoulders to a slump, and causing circles to blacken under my eyes.  I cannot escape this bastard spirit, even with the strongest intoxicant.  This feeling is blacker than the blackest melancholy – the contempt of man, more specifically the contempt of myself, or at least who I used to be.

His thrown sits empty inside my heart and he longs to fill it again.  I know if I allowed him entrance I would immediately feel lifted and comfort in this world, but my comfort would soon subside and guilt, the greatest of sins, would smoothly take comfort's place.

But know this, you darkest devil, I am independent of you now.  I now wear the very crown the gods wore as they breathed existence.  For I have climbed to the highest heights, not with sneaky intention, but with my chest out, I snatched the crown off of a dying god and placed it on my own brow.

I am no longer a priest, nor an artist, nor a subject of modern man.  I have rejected the sciences and the superstitions of religion for I become sick at the smell of their foul breath.  I have risen from my own ashes and as I flex the world flexes around me, with me, and within me.  Soon wings of fire I will spread, but before the bird can fly it must first war its way out of the egg.  I feel the lighting in my chest and it is thunder that pushes the blood through these veins.  Armageddon is coming but it will not be a war of demons and angels, rather a battle of lions and dragons will ensue.  My warning to you is, do not be caught up in this battle if you have an affinity for the gods of the past for what is to come is something completely new.  It will be a child who rises up and rules you, and it will be your fear of this child's power that will attempt to tear him down, piece by piece until he fits into the box history has created for him.  You will then proclaim the success of Jehovah, while the truth of it is that Jehovah has long been locked in the hell he created, he cannot hear you and his hand cannot reach you, for it is held back by the deepened nail.

My encouragement to you is this, run!  Run to Gahenna and fetch Jehovah's crown from one of his many heads, for the dragon will bow down to the child that wears the crown and the lion will sit to his right as a protector and defender of the king of kings, the child's eye.

Now take your leave, you darkness at my heart's door, you are no longer welcome here.  And take with you your thousand demons of melancholy and drown them in the sea, my heart is no longer open to you.  For my house is filled with the love of another and her's is the comfort I seek, I have no time for you.  Now you must go.

Currently Alaska By Between the Buried and Me All Bodies see related

Aphrodite's Fools

Let not the irony escape us; as the annual celebration of gowks, or the duped has fallen on the same day the Christians celebrate the Hebrew's triumphant entry into Jerusalem through the Golden Gate and his procession into the temple. 

It was a common custom in ancient Near East lands to cover the path of an exhaulted; and the Israelites chose to cover the path of the Hebrew with palms, symbolizing triumph and victory in their culture.  They had come to accept the Hebrew as their triumphant Messiah, readily laying objects beneath his path, honoring him, the man they thought would rescue them from Roman rule and imidiate political persecution.

As is common knowledge the Hebrew did not live up to the expectations of his people, they had been duped, and he lost his life because of it.  They were so wrapped up in their dogmatic and ritualistic reality that they had lost site of what was actually real; and burning with anger, at him as well as themselves for believing in him they take their retribution.

I beg of you, ask the questions necessary for solid faith.  What is reality? 

The Christians have become Aphrodite's Fools as under its umbrella neither morality nor religion have any point of contact with actuality.  True cause and effect are blantantly denied and imaginary concepts replace them.

Imaginary causes 'God', 'free will', 'spirit' and effect 'grace', 'salvation', 'sin', 'punishment' lay the foundation of the Christians reality.  Ancient man desired to explain what they could not explain, so the blanket of diety was thrown over reality.  In the ever-evolving story of diety man is dualized, split, seperated from himself.  Man created god in his own image, and surrended his power over.  Calling the now dead or denied part of himself the spirit, he proceeds in life telling himself that this god has given him free will, denying his own influence on reality, thereby eliminating his responsibilty for his own decisions.  The imaginary effects created by Christianity seek to reunite the denied part of man's self, the spirit, through a faith in unmeasurable grace, by the vehicle of salvation; thereby erasing his sin, or acutal responsibility, and avoiding eternal punishment.

Christianity not only deals in imaginary cause and effect, but also in imaginary beings creating an imaginary natural history.  Rather than acknowledging an anthropocentric, man should be his own cause, Christianity has adopted a theocentric worldview, one in which an imaginary god is man's cause.  In founding their worldview on such things the Christian completely denies the concept of natural causes.

in response to sends request, here is one verse in which christians often misinterpret paul's position on homosexuality.  unfortunately when they mistake paul's view they attach that incorrect view to god and jesus.  the difficult thing for many christians to realize is that it isn't the verse itself that is important but the words that are used in the letter.  remember, when this was written it wasn't chapter/verse, it was an actual letter to a church, it was never intended to be considered "scripture", just a letter.

i tried to encourage those who requested this "1 verse" to seek out the answers themselves, i even gave hints on where to find it, but after many refusals i felt i should post it here. 

now a quick disclaimer, remember this is just one verse out of an entire collection of letters and jewish history, they all work together.  my objective here is not to change a christian believers stance on homosexuality; rather it is to shed light on one of many very touchy issues that have been skirted over by the church through misinterpretation.  please keep in mind the point of this post, it will save us all some time.

now the "1 verse" per sends request...1 corinthians 6:9-10

now the explanation (which is actually more important than the verse)...there is not agenda here, my explanation does not say that homosexuality is right, it simply shows how the church and christians have misinterpreted or reinterpreted scripture to better fit their own moral agenda, which does not necessarily equal god's moral agenda.

first things first...the kingdom of god -
here paul builds a list, not all encompassing mind you, of activities that will prevent someone from reaching the "kingdom of god." there are two major beliefs on what paul means here by "kingdom of god"
1.) heaven - the most accepted view. my opinion is that this is the most accepted view because it is easier to understand
2.) god's way to live life or god's will for humans - the way paul writes this letter, specifically this phrase, he begins re-confirm to believers that god has a plan. now take into consideration that paul was a jewish scholar and was very familiar with jewish scripture, so we have to take into consideration the cultural interpretation of the time of jewish scripture, specifically the phrase "kingdom of god." the easiest way to explain it is "god's way of doing things" and this doesn't mean in heaven or the future, but right now. this is further supported by the way jesus lived and taught, his focus was not on eternity when he taught (although he did mention it) rather it was on the here and now, loving each other, taking care of each other, etc.

now unto the request...the "1 verse"
there are two phrases in this verse that are at debate here..."effeminate", "abusers of themselves with mankind" - both from the king james version. 

the words...not the verse
the original greek text (the words paul actually used) describes the two behaviors as...
1.) malakoi (or sometimes malakee)
2.)arsenokoitai
now these phrases are usually translated as "homosexual" or something kindred to it by most modern bibles but we can be very certain that this was not paul's intention, if he did intend to focus on general homosexual behavior he would have logically used the word paiderasste, which was the standard cultural term at the time for male homosexuals.  now before you dismiss this argument of logic, keep in mind who paul's audience was for this letter, the church of corinth...packed full of culturally literate greek speakers.  we can thereby logically conclude that paul meant something different from men who engaged in male to male, adult sexual behavior.

other uses of the words in the bible
1.)malakoi
i've seen the word malakoi used two other time in the bible, matthew 11:8 and luke 7:25, in both instances the word is used to mean "soft" (kjv) or "fine" (niv) in reference to clothing.  it could also be used mean "loose"...as in "loose morals," implying unethical behavior.  interestingly enough, non-biblical writings of the same era used the word to refer to lazy men, men who cannot handle hard work, or cowards. 

now to quote one of my hereos (and this may surprise some of you)...john wesley's bible notes defines "malakoi" as those "...who live in an easy, indolent way; taking up no cross, enduring no hardship." - from godrules.net/library

another bible scholar said that the word "effeminate" used in the kjv really "means men not working or advancing ideas so as to concern themselves with love only.  not working for the good of the whole...our present culture has all sorts of connotations associated with the word "effeminate" that simply don't apply" to paul's era.  it seem's logical to me that the word "effeminate" is simply a mistranslation...(which wouldn't be the first, do a study on the word lucifer).

2.) arsenokoitai
"arsen" - man..."koitai" - bed

the septuagint (ancient pre-christian translation of the old testament) translated the hebrew word "quadesh" in 1 kings 14:24, 15:12, and 22:46 as "arsenokoitai."  there it referred to male temple prostitutes or people who engaged in ritual sex in pagan temples (paul thomas cahill's book).  some leaders in the early christian church also thought that the word referred to temple prostitutes, being that rome was still full of pagan sex rituals.  while other authorities believed that it simply referred to male prostitutes with female customers, again a common place practice in the roman empire.  there are other writings of the time that use the word "arenokoitai" (sibylline oracles 2.70-77, acts of john, theophilus of antioch ad autolycum).  these writings suggest that the term refers to "some kind of economic exploitation by means of sex (but not necessarily homosexual sex)."  probably something like "pimp" or "man living off the avails of prostitution" which would be the closet english translation. 

it is worth noting that "much greek homosexual erotic literature has survived, none of it containing the word aresenokoitai.

other, more accurate possibilities
1.) masturbators
at the time of martin luther the phrase was commonly interpreted to mean masturbator, but by the 20th century, masturbation had become a generally accepted practice.  so newer translations left the masturbator reference and switched to attack homosexuals.  the last religious writing in english that interpreted 1 cor. 6:9 as referring to masturbators is believed to be in the roman catholic encyclopedia of 1967.

2.) catamites
a boy or young male who engaged in sexual activity with men, considering the roman culture of the time and the wide spread popularity of pre-pubescent males as the sexual symbol of the time this is likely the most valid translation for the first behavior.  such boys were often slaves, kept by rich men as sex partners, logically the second term would then refer to the men who engaged in sex with the catamites.  that is, they were abusive pedophiles.  in fact the new american bible contains a footnote that reads: "the greek word translated as 'boy prostitutes' [in 1 cor. 6:9] designated catamites, i.e. boys or young men who were kept for purposes of prostitution, a practice not uncommon in the greco-roman world...the term translated 'practicing homosexuals' refers to adult males who indulged in homosexual practices with such boys."

harper's bible commentary (1998) comments that the passage refers to "both the effeminate male prostitute and his partner who hires him to satisfy sexual needs.  the two terms used here for homosexuality...specify a special form of pederasty that was generally disapproved of in greco-roman and jewish literature."

the logical meaning
when taking into consideration that the phrases in debate here were up until 1967 consider to things other than homosexuality, such as masturbation...and taking into account the roman culture sexual symbol of the time was young boys we can logically conclude that this portion of paul's list referred to "male child abusers and the boys that they sexually abused."  i.e. the two behaviors probably relate to that portion of pedophiles who are child rapists, and the male children that they victimize. 

when viewed in historical and cultural context we can see that the verse would refer to the crime of child sexual abuse and has no relation to loving, caring, monogamous homosexual relationships in the normal sense of the phrase.  i.e. consensual sexual relations between adults of the same gender.

jesus' list versus paul's list
since this "1 verse" is a LIST OF ACTIVITIES that remove an individual from the "kingdom of god" it is worth noting that christ himself gave a LIST of sins that would bring doom on a person (matt 15:18-20):

"...those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.  for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fortifications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.  these are the things which defile a man..."

it is worthwhile go ahead and mention the obvious here....homosexual behavior is NOT one of the behaviors that is mentioned in this passage.  once COULD conclude that jesus did not consider it important.

now if we compare the logical claim that paul intended abusive relationships rather than homosexual relationships with christ's constant demand for respect of the individual, as demonstrated through his lifestyle we can see that christians, to be like christ must re-focus their efforts to thwart the sexualization of our youth and the constant objectification of individuals.

some other stuff i thought of while typing this...just random stuff
1.) lucifer
i mentioned it earlier but thought i would toss it out there again, to see another blatant misinterpretation of christian scripture, do a word study on lucifer...he (lucifer) isn't real, he was made up!  thanks jerome!

2.) pimp
after i typed the word "pimp" earlier it reminded me of abraham.  remember way back in genesis when he pimped his wife out...not once, but twice.  what a biblical hero!

the seventh mind game of the societal virus that is christianity -
fear

yes, the seventh and final mind game i am going to cover is good old fashioned "hell-fire and damnation."  of course it has its greatest effect on the ignorant and superstitious, but it can be an effective motivator even among the learned when it synergizes well with other mind games, such as the burning of bridges and the induction of dissociation.

it would appear that this conflicts directly with the sweet, likable persona of the first mind game. it actually doesn't; they work well together as a carrot and stick.  the fantasy world created by the first game acts as a carrot dangling in front of the convert, urging them to continue to seek that feeling that they once had...all while the fear of eternal torment acts as a stick, occasionally whacking the convert in moments of moral weakness.

even a casual reading of the new testament will uncover plenty of examples of this mind game. damnation, judgment, punishment for sin, blasphemy, etc., all are based on the fear mind game, and are so commonly employed by evangelicals they've become a stereotype.