Saturday 3 December 2016

A Voice in the Wilderness

“Wildernesses are good places, I notice, for voices. 

They tend to get to a reverberation which is often lost in the more crowded places.”



1994 : 
Me and You against The Universe, Old Girl...

1996 :
Athanasius Contra Mundum

March 2005 :
"The Desert had Become a City."
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

 Athanasius Contra Mundum
("Athanasius Against the World")


Enter a Post

WARWICK
What news, my friend?

Post
That Edward is escaped from your brother,
And fled, as he hears since, to Burgundy.

WARWICK

Unsavoury news! but how made he escape?

Post
He was convey'd by Richard Duke of Gloucester
And the Lord Hastings, who attended him
In secret ambush on the forest side
And from the bishop's huntsmen rescued him;
For hunting was his daily exercise.

WARWICK
My brother was too careless of his charge.
But let us hence, my sovereign, to provide
A salve for any sore that may betide.

Exeunt all but SOMERSET, HENRY OF RICHMOND, and OXFORD

SOMERSET
My lord, I like not of this flight of Edward's;
For doubtless Burgundy will yield him help,
And we shall have more wars before 't be long.
As Henry's late presaging prophecy
Did glad my heart with hope of this young Richmond,
So doth my heart misgive me, in these conflicts
What may befall him, to his harm and ours:
Therefore, Lord Oxford, to prevent the worst,
Forthwith we'll send him hence to Brittany,
Till storms be past of civil enmity.

OXFORD
Ay, for if Edward repossess the crown,
'Tis like that Richmond with the rest shall down.

SOMERSET
It shall be so; he shall to Brittany.
Come, therefore, let's about it speedily.
Exeunt


Come hither, England's hope. 

If secret powers
Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss. His looks are full of peaceful majesty,
His head by nature framed to wear a crown, His hand to wield a sceptre, and himself Likely in time to bless a regal throne.

Make much of him, my lords, for this is he Must help you more than you are hurt by me.



Come hither, England's hope. 


Why, then 'tis time to arm and give direction.

More than I have said, loving countrymen,
The leisure and enforcement of the time
Forbids to dwell upon: yet remember this,
God and our good cause fight upon our side;
The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls, Like high-rear'd bulwarks, stand before our faces; Richard except, those whom we fight against Had rather have us win than him they follow:
For what is he they follow? truly, gentlemen,
A bloody tyrant and a homicide;
One raised in blood, and one in blood establish'd;
One that made means to come by what he hath,
And slaughter'd those that were the means to help him; Abase foul stone, made precious by the foil
Of England's chair, where he is falsely set; One that hath ever been God's enemy: Then, if you fight against God's enemy, God will in justice ward you as his soldiers; If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,
You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain;
If you do fight against your country's foes,
Your country's fat shall pay your pains the hire;
If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your children from the sword,
Your children's children quit it in your age.

Then, in the name of God and all these rights, Advance your standards, draw your willing swords. For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
Shall be this cold corpse on the earth's cold face; But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
The least of you shall share his part thereof.

Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully; 

God and Saint George! 

Richmond and Victory!

The Mentaculus

God's Plan


So, You handle the important things? 
The last time I checked, the world is a pretty screwed-up place.

"It's still Here. 
If we had left things in your hands, it wouldn't Be."




"We actually tried Free Will before. 

After taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the Roman Empire we stepped back to see how you'd do on your own. 

You gave us the Dark Ages for five centuries... until finally we decided we should come back in. 

The Chairman thought maybe we just needed to do a better job of teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again. 


So we gave you the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution. 

For six hundred years we taught you to control your impulses with reason, then in 1910 we stepped back. Within fifty years, you'd brought us World War I, the Depression, Fascism, the Holocaust and capped it off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

At that point a decision was taken to step back in again before you did something that even we couldn't fix. 

You don't have Free Will, David. 
You have the appearance of Free Will.





What did they tell you about the Mentaculus?

The Mentaculus is actually taken from a friend of theirs who wrote this thing called the Mentaculus. It was the same thing— someone who was trying to create a probability map of the universe, and probably went a little mad in the process. So they just stole from the truth that was their lives, and threw it in the movie.

Do you know who did the artwork for Uncle Arthur’s Mentaculus notebook? 

Yeah, fantastic artists. Mike Sell and Eric Karpeles. They’re these wonderful artists. Mike specializes in a kind of photographic realism in his painting, and Eric does more sort of abstract art. They created it together. Really, really fun stuff, and they just went to town. [laughs]

It’s interesting that there is all this questioning of why things are happening, without finding any answers, but here’s Uncle Arthur, who believes he is going to completely figure out why everything is happening — and he’s a mess. He’s going mad. 

Maybe that’s where the quote comes in: “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you,” as opposed to fighting against it or trying to understand it thoroughly. There’s a kind of wisdom in acceptance in some cases, and in other cases there is not. 



These are the Members of the Airplane.

Wednesday 30 November 2016

The Dweller on the Threshold






Cooper, you may be fearless in this world. But there are other worlds. Worlds beyond life and death. Worlds beyond scientific reality.

Cooper: 
Tell me more.

Hawk: 
My people believe that the White Lodge is a place where the spirits that rule man and nature reside. There is also a legend of a place called the Black Lodge. The shadow self of the White Lodge. Legend says that every spirit must pass through there on the way to perfection. 

There, you will meet your own shadow self. 
My people call it The Dweller on the Threshold.

Cooper: 
Dweller on the Threshold.

Hawk: 
But it is said that if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul.

Tuesday 29 November 2016

Alexander The Large

I am not the god of your fathers. 

I am the hidden stone and break all hearts. 

Break open your own heart. 

Come from below. 

Rise unto the heights, descend again with knowledge. 

You must return below.

FLUELLEN
What call you the town's name where Alexander the Big was born!
GOWER
Alexander the Great.
FLUELLEN
Why, I pray you, is not big great? the big, or the
great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the
magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase
is a little variations.
GOWER
I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his
father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it.


13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?

15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.




Sunday 27 November 2016

The Sylvia North Story

Sylvia of The North

Sylvia


Pronunciation of Sylvia [sylvia] as a girls' name is pronounced SIL-vee-ah. It is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Sylvia is "woods, forest". The Latin form Silvia was more popular for centuries until recently. Rhea Silvia was an ancient nature goddess, mother to the twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. 



Shakespeare used the name Silvia for the love interest in his play "Two Gentlemen of Verona", probably intending to give the impression of a typical Italian girl though the name has come to be regarded as an English name.



Associated with: ancient (old), nature, goddess, play (opera)."



“I’ve never worked on a project in this way before. I don’t know exactly how this thing will finally unfold… This film is very different because I don’t have a script. I write the thing scene by scene and much of it is shot and I don’t have much of a clue where it will end. It’s a risk, but I have this feeling that because all things are unified, this idea over here in that room will somehow relate to that idea over there in The Pink Room.


Saturday 26 November 2016

Paper Wraps Jelly Baby


In 1942, Aleister Crowley, a British occultist, claimed to have invented the usage of a V-sign in February 1941 as a magical foil to the Nazis' use of the Swastika. 


He maintained that he passed this to friends at the BBC, and to the British Naval Intelligence Division through his connections in MI5, eventually gaining the approval of Winston Churchill. 


Crowley noted that his 1913 publication Magick featured a V-sign and a swastika on the same plate.




(The bemused Movellans are watching a game of paper scissors stone.
DOCTOR: Paper wraps stone. 

ROMANA:
Ha, stone blunts scissors. 

DOCTOR:
Scissors cuts paper. Ha, ha! But suppose we were two computers controlling two great battle fleets, each one working perfectly logically to outmanoeuvre the other. Well, you're robots, you try it. 

SHARREL: We're perfectly...

DOCTOR:
Try it! Go on. 


(The two Movellans come up with scissors and scissors twice, then stone and stone.


DOCTOR: Ha! You see? You're caught in an impasse of logic. You've discovered the recipe for everlasting peace. Congratulations. I'm terribly pleased. 

SHARREL:
Our objective is victory, Doctor. The destruction of the Dalek fleet. 

DOCTOR: You play with me, eh? Come on. 

SHARREL:
Paper. 

DOCTOR: Scissors cuts paper. 

SHARREL: Stone. 

DOCTOR: Paper wraps stone. 

SHARREL: Scissors. 

DOCTOR: Stone blunts scissors. Again. Scissors cuts paper. 

SHARREL: Stone. 

DOCTOR: Paper wraps stone. 

SHARREL: Scissors. 

DOCTOR: Stone blunts scissors. 

SHARREL: Thank you, Doctor. Our battle computers must have a new element programmed into them. An advantage, however small, that will change the balance of power. You. 

ROMANA: And the Daleks want the same thing. 

DOCTOR: Yes. 

SHARREL: When we reach the fleet, you will reprogramme our computers. 

DOCTOR: I will? 

AGELLA: Yes. The Dalek fleet will be wiped from the heavens and nothing will stand in our way of the conquest of the galaxy. 

DOCTOR: No, you've overlooked something. Suppose I was willing to help you to change the balance of power, which I'm not, Davros will be doing exactly the same things for the Daleks. I mean, he may be mad, but his computer skills are almost as great as mine. 

SHARREL: That is precisely why we're taking you with us, Doctor. When we're safely in space, the Nova device will detonate and destroy Davros. With your skills, the impasse will be broken. 



[Spacecraft]
(The game continues.

ROMANA:
Scissors cuts paper. (sotto) Let's get out. 

DOCTOR: (sotto) Yes. (normal) Paper wraps stone. (sotto) How? 


(Two scissors.


ROMANA: Stalemate. (sotto) Do something. 

DOCTOR: (sotto) When I give the signal, move. 

(The Doctor stand but a Movellan with weapon drawn makes him sit down again.


DOCTOR: Stone blunts scissors. 

ROMANA:
Good plan. Scissors cuts paper. Paper wraps 

DOCTOR: Jelly baby. 

ROMANA: Jelly baby? 

DOCTOR: Doctor catches robot. 

[Spacecraft]

(Lan and Agella lead the humanoids in. The Doctor spots Tyssan's face by the entrance and leaps to his feet.

DOCTOR: Don't you ever speak to me like that again, you understand? Never! 

ROMANA: What did I say? 

DOCTOR: Jelly baby! You keep out of this. It's a personal matter, isn't it. 

ROMANA: Yes. 

DOCTOR: So just mind your own business. 

ROMANA: You tell him. 

DOCTOR: And you mind your own business, too. 

ROMANA: What? 

DOCTOR: Duck! 

(Lan shoots the Movellan and he tumbles over the Doctor's back. Agella also shoots her fellow robots as the prisoners run in and try to grab control units. Some prisoners are injured. The Doctor dashes to the main computer as four Movellans slowly close in on him. The Doctor blows his dog whistle and they slow enough for Romana to grab three units while the Doctor gets the last one.


DOCTOR: Oh well, so much for logic. A mind that can be scrambled by a dog whistle. 


Time is Fleeting

It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll...


(Riff Raff) 
It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll...

(Magenta) 
Ahh...

(Riff Raff) 
But listen closely...

(Magenta) 
Not for very much longer...

(Riff Raff) 
I've got to keep control.
I remember doing the Time Warp.
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me.

(Riff Raff & Magenta) 
And the void would be calling.

(Guests) 
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

(Narrator) 
It's just a jump to the left.

(Guests) 
And then a step to the right.

(Narrator) 
With your hand on your hips.


(Guests) 
You bring your knees in tight.
But it's the pelvic thrust.
They really drive you insane.
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

(Magenta) 
It's so dreamy
Oh, fantasy free me
So you can't see me
No not at all.

In another dimension
With voyeuristic intention.
Well secluded I see all...

(Riff Raff) 
With a bit of a mind flip...

(Magenta) 
You're into a time slip...

(Riff Raff) 
And nothing can ever be the same.

(Magenta) 
You're spaced out on sensation.

(Riff Raff) 
Like you're under sedation.

(Guests) 
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

(Columbia) 
Well, I was walking down the street
Just having a think
When a snake of a guy
Gave me an evil wink.
Well it shook me up
It took me by surprise
He had a pick-up truck
And the devil's eyes
He stared at me
And I felt a change
Time meant nothing
Never would again.

(Guests) 
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

(Narrator) 
It's just a jump to the left.

(Guests) 
And then a step to the right.

(Narrator) 
With your hands on your hips.

(Guests) 
You bring you knees in tight.
But it's the pelvic thrust...
That really drives you insane
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again

(Columbia) 
Ah! Oh! Oh! Yeoooww...
Ahhhh.

(Guests) 
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

(Narrator) 
It's just a jump to the left.

(Guests) 
And then a step to the right.

(Narrator) 
With your hands on your hips.

(Guests) 
You bring your knees in tight.
But it's the pelvic thrust
They really drive you insane.
Let's do the Time Warp again.
Let's do the Time Warp again.

The Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley [Liber CCCXXXIII : Book 333] (Occul...


 "At first sight the book is a jumble of nonsense intended to insult the reader. It requires infinite study, sympathy, intuition and initiation. Given these I do not hesitate to claim that in none other of my writings have I given so profound and comprehensive an exposition of my
philosophy on every plane...."


You cannot hope to understand The Book of Law unless and until you read it side-by-side in parallel with The Book of Lies.

Because to understand and recognise what is True, you must first gain a fuller, more complete knowledge of all that is subtle, false and treacherous.


This World is filled with Lies that are True. 
What would you call a Lie that causes you to smile when it gets told to you?

I call it a Joke.


Certain details and aspects of the above anecdote are not factual.

But, as the Jews say, the story is completely True - just like the Book of Exodus.

Not everything which happens is Real, and not everything that is Real necessarily actually happened. 
This is what Truth is.

This is the nature of the parable or fables. Most of the ministry and teaching of Jesus Christ was based on storytelling about things which never happened to people that didn't exist - like all religion.

Its powerful because it is True - it need not be factual.




". . . None the less, I could point to some solid achievement on the large scale, although it is composed of more or less disconnected elements. I refer to The Book of Lies. In this there are 93 chapters: we count as a chapter the two pages filled respectively with a note of interrogation and a mark of exclamation. The other chapters contain sometimes a single word, more frequently from a half-dozen to twenty phrases, occasionally anything up to a dozen to twenty paragraphs. The subject of each chapter is determined more or less definitely by the Qabalistic import of its number. Thus Chapter 25 gives a revised ritual of the Pentagram; 72 is a rondel with the refrain 'Shemhamphorash', the Divine name of 72 letters; 77 Laylah, whose name adds to that number; and 80, the number of the letter Pé, referred to Mars,a panegyric upon War. Sometimes the text is serious and straightforward, sometimes its obscure oracles demand deep knowledge of the Qabalah for interpretation, others contain obscure allusions, play upon words, secrets expressed in cryptogram, double or triple meanings which must be combined in order to appreciate the full flavour; others again are subtly ironical or cynical. At first sight the book is a jumble of nonsense intended to insult the reader. It requires infinite study, sympathy, intuition and initiation. Given these I do not hesitate to claim that in none other of my writings have I given so profound and comprehensive an exposition of my philosophy on every plane. . . ."

". . . My association with Free Masonry was therefore destined to be more fertile than almost any other study, and that in a way despite itself. A word should be pertinent with regard to the question of secrecy. It has become difficult for me to take this matter very seriously. Knowing what the secret actually is, I cannot attach much importance to artificial mysteries. Again, though the secret itself is of such tremendous import, and though it is so simple that I could disclose it ... in a short paragraph, I might do so without doing much harm. For it cannot be used indiscriminately ... I have found in practice that the secret of the O.T.O. cannot be used unworthily. . . ."

"It is interesting in this connection to recall how it came into my posession. It had occured to me to write a book 'THE BOOK OF LIES, WHICH IS ALSO FALSELY CALLED BREAKS, THE WANDERINGS OR FALSIFICATION OF THE THOUGHT OF FRATER PERDURABO WHICH THOUGHT IS ITSELF UNTRUE. . . .' One of these chapters bothered me. I could not write it. I invoked Dionysus with particular fervour, but still without success. I went off in desperation to 'change my luck', by doing something entirely contrary to my inclinations. In the midst of my disgust, the spirit came over me, and I scribbled the chapter down by the light of a farthing dip. When I read it over, I was as discontented as before, but I stuck it into the book in a sort of anger at myself as a deliberate act of spite towards my readers.

"Shortly after publication, the O.H.O. (Outer Head of the O.T.O.) came to me. (At that time I did not realise that there was anything in the O.T.O. beyond a convenient compendium of the more important truths of Free Masonry.) He said that since I was acquainted with the supreme secret of the Order, I must be allowed the IX° and obligated in regard to it. I protested that I knew no such secret. He said' But you have printed it in the plainest language'. I said that I could not have done so because I did not know it. He went to the bookselves; taking out a copy of The Book of Lies, he pointed to a passage in the despised chapter. It instantly flashed upon me. The entire symbolism not only of Free Masonry but of many other traditions blazed upon my spiritual vision. From that moment the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key to the future progress of humanity. . . ."

The Commentary was written by Crowley probably around 1921. The student will find it very helpful for the light it throws on many of its passages.

The Editors

Terran Chickens


"You know what the problem is? The problem is Earth.

On Earth, there is no poverty, no crime, no war. You look out the window of Starfleet Headquarters and you see paradise. 

Well, it's easy to be a saint in paradise, but the Maquis do not live in paradise. 

Out there in the Demilitarized Zone, all the problems haven't been solved yet. 

Out there, there are no saints — just people. 

Angry, scared, determined people who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with Federation approval or not!" 
Sisko, on Nechayev's suggestion that he "establish a dialogue" with the Maquis