halloween: druid origins & the role of catholic church

Halloween began over 2,000 years ago among the Celts and their priests, the Druids. Samhain, the Druids most important ritual, signified the death of Summer on November 1. In a blog titled, "Halloween: A Covenant with Death & Hell," Dr Terry Watkins sees mostly evil and informs, "The Druids believed, during Samhain, the mystic veil separating the dead from the living opened. The Druids taught these roaming spirits loosed on Samhain went searching for a body to possess. The frightened Celts would masquerade as demons, evil spirits and ghosts, hoping to convince the roaming evil spirits, they were another evil spirit, and leave them alone. The Celts also prepared meals as 'treats' to appease the evil spirits from 'tricks' or malicious acts; hence our custom of 'trick or treat'."

are horror films anti-religious?

from sun-sentinel: It's Halloween and time to revisit films that help us stare down our most primal fears. But beware: You'll often see religious themes -- actually, anti-religious ones -- woven deeply into the storylines. "It’s one of the only genres that gives credence to the idea that there is a supernatural world," artist Craig Joseph says in an in-depth piece in The Canton Repository in Ohio. "Because of that, you can get away with talking about religion and spiritual and invisible things more than any other genre." The opportunity may be there, but it's often squandered. Horror films typically have a powerful malevolent force, but little or no supernatural help on the side of good. Believers, in fact, are often shown as part of the problem... Why is all this so? Well, part of it may be that filmmakers feel more adept at portraying the profane than the divine. As C. S. Lewis said after writing "The Screwtape Letters," he could imagine correspondence between demons just by looking in his own heart.

halloween special: 'something wicked this way comes'

Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel, "Something Wicked This Way Comes," provides a Halloween fright. Please join Will and Jim on the carousel at a decidedly evil carnival that mysteriously arrives in their Illinois town. There are six days to enjoy BBC4 presentation of Bradbury's novel. Thanks goes to SFFaudio for link. Be frightened and entertained!

catholics' mass liturgy changing; 'ritual whiplash' ahead?

from washington post: English-speaking Catholics are bracing for the biggest changes to their Mass since the 1960s, a shift some leaders warn could cause “ritual whiplash.” The overhaul, which will become mandatory Nov. 27, is aimed at unifying the more than 1 billion Catholics worldwide with a translation that is as close as possible to the original Latin version. It allows for less independence and diversity of interpretation in a church that in recent decades has tried to retain more control over how Catholicism is defined. Recent popes have emphasized orthodoxy and hierarchy, particularly in the West, where religious identity is increasingly fluid. Catholic hospitals and schools have been required to more clearly espouse church teachings, and Pope Benedict XVI has stressed the sole truth of Catholicism over other faiths, even declining this month to pray with Hindus, Jews and others at an inter-religious event. The new translation changes the majority of sentences in the Mass. The prayers and call-and-response dialogue between the priest and the congregation are different, transforming the dialogue that Catholics under 40 have used in church their entire lives.

king kill 33: masonic sorcery behind kennedy assassination

An enigmatic essay "King Kill 33" co-written by James Shelby Downard, provides insight into machinations of Freemasonry. A reader must brace for a torrent of hyperbolic associations; however, once acclimated, there's much to be gained from this essay! Downard states clearly, "the systematic arrangement of the overall pattern of symbolical things having to do with the killing of Kennedy when properly evaluated indicates that he was a scapegoat in a sacrifice". Further, the author chides any analysis that fails to see ritualistic overtones of masonic sorcery incorporated in the event! "But the ultimate purpose of that assassination was not political or economic but sorcerous; for the control of the dreaming mind and the marshaling of its forces is the omnipotent force in this entire scenario of lies, cruelty and degradation. Something died in the American people on November 22, 1963 -- call it idealism, innocence or the quest for moral excellence -- it is this transformation of human beings which is the authentic reason and motive for the Kennedy murder and until so-called conspiracy theorists can accept this very real element they will be reduced to so many eccentrics amusing a tiny remnant of dilettantes and hobbyists," writes Downard. The insight raises the conspiracy theory bar by placing it directly into the mystical realm!

prince charles cites vlad the impaler as ancestor

from ap: The truth is out: Prince Charles is related to Vlad the Impaler. The heir to the British throne says he is related to Vlad the Impaler, the cruel 15th-Century Romanian warlord who helped inspire Bram Stoker’s 1897 vampire novel “Dracula.” He makes the comments on an upcoming TV show to promote his interest in protecting the forests of Romania’s Transylvania region.

why we create monsters

looking for horror experts for halloween? look no further.
from buffalo.edu: Experts in various aspects of the macabre include several University at Buffalo faculty members who specialize in what many cultures find horrible and terrifying. The UB faculty specializations range from satanic practice, black magic and cultural monstrosities (like serial killers) to "real" and imagined vampires and zombies, as well as the bizarre Spanish gothic period in which our fascination with the utterly horrible is grounded. One expert includes greedy bankers and environmentally destructive corporations among the monsters of our time. All of these experts, described below, can discuss not only what frightens us, but how and why we create monsters to help us cope with cultural anxiety. The article quotes vampire scholar John Edgar Browning: "Vampires and monsters -- they're just us," Browning says. "They're what we aspire to be, what we're told to hate most about ourselves, what we secretly yearn for, but shouldn't."

swami bhaktipada, ex-hare krishna leader, dies at 74

from nytimes: Swami Bhaktipada, a former leader of the American Hare Krishna movement who built a sprawling golden paradise for his followers in the hills of Appalachia but who later pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges that included conspiracy to commit the murders-for-hire of two devotees, died on Monday in a hospital near Mumbai, India. He was 74. The cause was kidney failure, his brother, Gerald Ham, said.

Mr. Bhaktipada, who was released from prison in 2004 after serving eight years of a 12-year sentence, moved to India in 2008. The son of a Baptist preacher, Mr. Bhaktipada was one of the first Hare Krishna disciples in the United States. He founded, in 1968, what became the largest Hare Krishna community in the country and presided over it until 1994, despite having been excommunicated by the movement’s governing body.

The community he built, New Vrindaban, is nestled in the hills near Moundsville, W.Va., about 70 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. Its conspicuous centerpiece is the Palace of Gold, an Eastern-inspired riot of gold-leafed domes, stained-glass windows, crystal chandeliers, mirrored ceilings, inlaid marble floors, sweeping murals, silk brocade hangings, carved teak pillars and ornate statuary.

New Vrindaban eventually comprised more than 4,000 acres — a “spiritual Disneyland,” its leaders often called it — with a live elephant, terraced gardens, a swan boat and bubbling fountains. A major tourist attraction, it drew hundreds of thousands of visitors in its heyday, in the early 1980s, and substantial annual revenue from ticket sales.

The baroque frenzy of the place stands in vivid contrast to the founding tenets of the Hare Krishna movement.

vatican calls for new global financial authority amid economic crisis

vatican calls for 'central world bank' to be set up

from belief blog: Against the backdrop of the European debt crisis and the birth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Vatican on Monday called for a new “global public authority” to help reform the world’s finance and economic systems. New ideologies are “reducing the common good to economic, financial and technical questions, (placing) the future of democratic institutions themselves at risk," said Roman Catholic Bishop Mario Toso at a Monday press conference. The document, called "Towards reforming the international financial and monetary systems in the context of a global public authority" quotes former Pope John Paul II in bemoaning the “idolatry of the market.” The document calls for a new global economic authority that could impose penalties on member states as “way of ensuring that they possess efficient markets,” Toso said. Some progressives embraced the Vatican’s call, arguing that it sounded many of the same themes as the Occupy Wall Street movement.

deep occult symbolism of the dog star: sirius

There exists a mysterious relationship between humanity and the star, Sirius. Secret Arcana (SA) explores deep occult symbolism in article, "The Mysterious Connection Between Sirius and Human History". The most astonishing of these relationships to Sirus, concerns the African Dogon tribe in Mali. The tribe's knowledge of astronomy outstripped their technology fully aware of the dark companion, Sirius B, and described in a previous post here. Robert Temple's controversial 1971 book, "The Sirius Mystery," describes aspects of Dogon mythology: "...humanity is said to be born from the Nommo, a race of amphibians who were inhabitants of a planet circling Sirius. They are said to have 'descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder' and imparted to humans profound knowledge."

how revolutionary tools cracked a 1700s code

google cracks 'unbreakable' code of secret society manuscript
from nyimes: It has been more than six decades since Warren Weaver, a pioneer in automated language translation, suggested applying code-breaking techniques to the challenge of interpreting a foreign language... That insight led to a generation of statistics-based language programs like Google Translate — and, not so incidentally, to new tools for breaking codes that go back to the Middle Ages. Now a team of Swedish and American linguists has applied statistics-based translation techniques to crack one of the most stubborn of codes: the Copiale Cipher, a hand-lettered 105-page manuscript that appears to date from the late 18th century. They described their work at a meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics in Portland, Ore. Discovered in an academic archive in the former East Germany, the elaborately bound volume of gold and green brocade paper holds 75,000 characters, a perplexing mix of mysterious symbols and Roman letters. The name comes from one of only two non-coded inscriptions in the document. Kevin Knight, a computer scientist at the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, collaborated with Beata Megyesi and Christiane Schaefer of Uppsala University in Sweden to decipher the first 16 pages. They turn out to be a detailed description of a ritual from a secret society that apparently had a fascination with eye surgery and ophthalmology.

The complete translation can be found here as a PDF.

new york city's mystic history

Gothamist has posted a great interview with Mitch Horowitz, editor-in-chief of Tarcher — the mind/body/spirit publisher of the Penguin Group — and author of Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation...

Let's talk about your tours. You've mentioned some New York City establishments. What should people expect to see and learn when they're on one of your walking tours?

10/20 pop occulture: versions, evictions & the netherworld

king james bible at 400 continues to inspire*

british media, theaters celebrate 400th anniversary of the king james bible* video: celebrating the 400th anniversary
montana government evicts jesus statue from park*
susan sarandon says pope benedict a 'nazi'*
tibetan nun dies after setting self ablaze*
penang temple medium 'commissioned to sell iphone in netherworld'*

gop presidential hopeful courts pagans

from the hill: Gary Johnson’s unorthodox campaign for the Republican presidential nomination continued Sunday, when he spoke at a Google+ town hall conducted by representatives of various pagan media outlets. The former New Mexico governor spoke with members of the Pagan Newswire Collective, ModernWitch Podcast and Patheos.com, among others. He said it was important to reach out to voters that fall outside the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths, and slammed his own party for being too beholden to the Christian right. “I think the world looks down on Republicans for their socially conservative views, which includes religion in government,” Johnson said. “I think that should not play a role in any of this. When Republicans talk about values - you know what? I bet you and I have the same values.”

full transcript available at patheos.org

doomsday comet elenin passes quietly, oct21 prediction up next

from christian post: The “doomsday comet” Elenin, which some predicted would usher in the end of the world with a series of tsunamis and earthquakes, glided passed earth on Sunday, Oct. 16 in several tiny pieces. The Discovery News website classified the predicted doomsday comet as being a product of "overactive imaginations of some conspiracy theorists." NASA issued a Q&A entitled “everything you ever needed to know about Elenin” to quell doomsday speculation. “Most [comets] pose no threat to earth […] Elenin is not exception,” read the Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA website. Elenin was closest to earth at 22 million miles away, more than 90 times the distance of the moon from earth, on the evening of Oct. 16. This isn’t the only end of the world prediction in current circulation. Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping has predicted the end of the world will come Friday, October 21. His prediction is similar to that of the comet’s in that he too claims the world will be destroyed by a succession of earthquakes on Oct. 21.

murders of peruvian shaman investigated; mayor lead suspect

the killing of folk healers in peru causes alarm
from guardian: The Peruvian government is sending a team of officials to a remote region of the Amazon jungle to investigate the deaths of 14 shamans who were killed in a string of brutal murders. The traditional healers, all from the Shawi ethnic group, were murdered in separate incidents over the last 20 months, allegedly at the behest of a local mayor. No arrests have been made over the deaths, which took place in and around Balsapuerto, a small river port in Peru's vast Amazon region on its northern border with Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. The prime suspects, however, in the disappearance of one victim and the murder of another are the mayor of Balsapuerto, Alfredo Torres and his brother Augusto. The two men were named in a report from the public prosecutor's office in the nearest town of Yurimaguas, which said seven of the victims had been shot, stabbed or hacked to death with machetes. Local people identified all of them as curanderos or native healers, said the vice-minister of intercultural affairs, Vicente Otta... He said that the murder suspects had sought to "legitimise the killings" by blaming the victims for the high level of infant mortality in the area.

who built the georgia guidestones?

The Georgia Guidestones seem more relevant today than when the flagstone was placed on March 22, 1980. The flagstone reads, "Let These Be Guidestones To An Age of Reason". One reason sinister motives are ascribed to the stones is the first "commandment" that reads, "Maintain Humanity Under 500,000,000 In Perpetual Balance With Nature". Vigilant Citizen (VC) advises in, "Sinister Sites: The Georgia Guidestones," "But between the idealistic words of the Guidestone’s authors and the actual way these policies would be applied on the masses – by power-hungry and greedy politicians – there is a world of difference." There may be natural disasters that reduce human population drastically such as another "Black Death", recently reported to have its genetic code deciphered! Who is responsible for this symbolic monument?

why friday the 13th is unlucky

Why is Friday the 13th considered so unlucky? The present writer assumed it dated to the arrests of Jacques De Molay and the Knights Templar on Oct. 13, 1307. A closer look at folklore leaves doubt to its origins in article by David Emery, "Why Friday the 13th Is Unlucky". In an excerpt from "Tales of the Knights Templar," Katherine Kurtz recaps arrests of the Knights Templar: "On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would become a synonym for ill fortune, officers of King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated dawn raid that left several thousand Templars — knights, sergeants, priests, and serving brethren — in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, various obscenities, and homosexual practices.

order of the illuminati: origins, methods & influence on world events

from vigilant citizen: The Order of the Illuminati is often at the center of debates about the impact of secret societies on human history. Is the Illuminati a myth or does it truly secretly rule the world? As the number of people asking that question has grown, facts about the Order have become diluted with misconceptions and disinformation, making objective research on the subject difficult. This article attempts to shed some factual light on the Order of the Illuminati by reviewing some of the most important documents on the subject.

Read full article on Vigilant Citizen’s sister site Secret Arcana

The Secret Beliefs of Mormons

A question of a President's choice of faith returns to public discourse. A Mormon Bishop's daughter reveals secret beliefs held by Mitt Romney in a book, " The Mormon Church Versus the Office of the Presidency of the United States of America". John F Kennedy was Catholic, and at the time, thought a barrier to getting elected. Is this a similar prejudice or is Mormonism different? Better yet, with revelations about the Catholic church and pedophilia, possibly, readers should question either religion in a candidate's background? Author Tricia Erickson writes, "...her main concern is that the leader of the free world have the ability to discern fact from fiction." Erickson also poses the question, "...if the man truly believes he's gonna become a god, would you trust the judgment of somebody like that?" And, a possible reason the public hasn't heard about these "secrets", Erickson said, "they actually had us slashing our guts open and our guts falling to the ground if we told people of the secret dogma of the ceremonies...". Yes, there seems a concern about a Mormon President, but we've already endured presidents whose contact with reality was tenuous at best!

10/13 pop occulture: #jesusween, summons & summits

the latest christian halloween protest: jesusween!*

seattle 'satan' peed on house, rang doorbell, exposed self*
video: bachmann summons satan during gop debate*
obama hosts first evangelical summit at the white house*
did n. korea assassinate activist pastor?*
harold camping & the end of the world on oct21*
audio 'shock value': modern horror defined by edgy realism of 1970s*

satanists: col russell williams and college buddy paul bernardo

Col. Russell Wiliams commanded Canada's largest Air Force base until arrested for the serial murder of two women, last year. Henry Makow reports on unsavory aspects of these crimes in article, "Canadian Serial Killer Linked to Elite Satanists?". Makow works to remind readers Williams and Paul Bernardo were friends back in the eighties while in college. Bernardo convicted for his crimes over two decades ago. Makow writes, "What the Bernardo trial covered up and the newspaper ignored, is that Bernardo's murders were satanic in nature. They were so horrific that the trial proceedings were made secret. Bernardo and his wife Karla Homolka filmed the murders as snuff films for the entertainment of a network of elite Illuminati Satanists. This is the real reason the trial was hit with a publication ban...The police speculated that the two may have 'competed' against each other in terms of sex crimes."  Makow leaves the accusation an open question with a question mark in the title, but facts of the case heavily insinuate cult activity!

apocalyptic pillar at st john the divine cathedral

You need look no further than St John The Divine Cathedral, if you're wondering what a One World Religion might look like? Vigilant Citizen (VC) does masterful job pointing out sights with heavy occult overtones in, "Sinister Sites - St John the Divine Cathedral," in New York City. VC reminds reader John the Apostle is credited with writing the Book of Revelation. The apocalyptic messages are blatant on this Gothic Cathedral - Masons the principal builders with laying of the cornerstone on Dec. 27, 1892.  VC observes, "the destruction of New York city (including the Twin Towers) sculpted right on the building… Strange occult symbols on the floor… Weird rituals being performed in the sanctuary… Home of the Temple of Understanding which admittedly seeks to instate a new world religion… This cathedral is definitively “different”...the cathedral is in fact a temple of Neo-Pagan-Bordeline-Satanic-the-Environment-is-more-important-than-human-life beliefs". What kind of house of worship is this? VC makes it very clear, messages telegraphed are in the open for anyone to see! You may also want to view video of large Halloween celebration - "The Procession of Ghouls" held at the Cathedral. Wow!

kampala, uganda: where child sacrifice is an elite business

uganda's growing market in child sacrifice*
from the bbc: The villages and farming communities that surround Uganda's capital, Kampala, are gripped by fear. School children are closely watched by teachers and parents as they make their way home from school. In playgrounds and on the roadside are posters warning of the danger of abduction by witch doctors for the purpose of child sacrifice. The ritual, which some believe brings wealth and good health, was almost unheard of in the country until around three years ago, but it has re-emerged, seemingly alongside a boom in the country's economy. The mutilated bodies of children have been discovered at roadsides, the victims of an apparently growing belief in the power of human sacrifice. Many believe that members of the country's new elite are paying witch doctors vast sums of money for the sacrifices in a bid to increase their wealth.

vampire, werewolf entertainment causes rise in occult activities

from christian today: More than just a flippant fascination, youth today have become fixated on popular entertainment subjects like vampires, ghosts and witches, taking their interests to the extreme, and acting out in accordance.

pythagoras, esoteric traditions and numerology

Pythagoras known for his theorem, also, greatly influenced esoteric traditions. Wikipedia's entry reports, "Pythagoras started a secret society called the Pythagorean brotherhood devoted to the study of mathematics. This had a great effect on future esoteric traditions, such as Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, both of which were occult groups dedicated to the study of mathematics and both of which claimed to have evolved out of the Pythagorean brotherhood ...Pythagorean theory was tremendously influential on later numerology..." "The system of numerology is a method of divination which is also employed in the use of magic," according to the Mystica website, "the practice is based upon statement of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, 'the world is built upon the power of numbers'."

s. african teen's evil poetry, sketches scare family

from iol.co.za: The family of a 14-year-old girl fear she may be part of a satanic cult after finding evil drawings and poems in her school books. And a local priest warns the girl is on the brink of being lost to the devil if she hasn’t already sold her soul to Satan.

survey says reading the bible frequently could make you more liberal

from god discussion: Reading the Bible frequently can make you a liberal, according to Christianity Today. Lifeway Research conducted a recent poll which found that 89 percent of American homes own a Bible, with the average home having 4.1 Bibles (what would .1 of a Bible look like?) Christianity Today reports that support for capital punishment, or harsh punishment for criminals decreases, and interest in social justice increases with the level of frequency the Bible is read.

10/6 pop occulture: pagan pride, jobs, knox & the satan motive

calif. gov jerry brown prevents ban on male circumcision*

kentucky town celebrates pagan pride day*
georgia church produced film 'courageous' lighting up box office*
nj gospel choir breaks guinness record with 1,542 people*
the zen of steve jobs*
the spiritual side of steve jobs*
amanda knox & why the satan motive never stacks up in a court*
oct21 update: end times teacher inviting mockery of christian beliefs?*

religious leaders line up in support of supreme court case

from usatoday: Unity among religious leaders is rare, but a pending U.S. Supreme Court case is drawing together a group beyond the boldest dreams of any interfaith parliament. Leaders of Roman Catholics, Mormons, Presbyterians, United Methodists, Seventh-day Adventists, Hindus, United Sikhs, Muslims, Episcopalians, Reform Jews and Orthodox Jews are united. So are the conservative National Association of Evangelicals and its liberal counterpart, the National Council of Churches. So are devotees of Santeria, Yoruba and other religions you may not know. Even the various Baptist denominations are all on the same side. They all support the right of religious groups to hire and fire teachers who could be construed as "ministers" on grounds that would be otherwise discriminatory, whether due to race, gender and disability or other reasons. The article notes that only one religious organization stands opposed - the Unitarians.

zombie apocalypse: loss of full awareness and agency

Is there something more to a recent emergency awareness campaign by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)? Dr. Stephen C. L'Hommedieu believes there is in his insightful article, "The Meaning of 'Zombie Apocalypse'," where a seeming hip approach to preparedness provides cover for a vaccination apocalypse. L'Hommedieu informs, "imagine this: multiple vaccinations incorporating the destructive power of millions of molecular “chainsaws” from a variety of neurotoxins such as, mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and a host of other toxic chemical ingredients." The implication is clear, vaccination is a form of zombification!

va. court rules spiritual counseling is commercial speech, not religious

from god discussion: In Virginia, it's against the law to read tarot cards, do palm readings or anything of a "fortunetelling" nature without the requisite permits... Patricia Moore-King...claimed that her work as a spiritual counselor was part of her religion, and the requirement to get permits, the tax on business licenses and the county zoning laws violated her free speech, free exercise of religion and equal protection rights. In Moore-King vs. County of Chesterfield, Virginia, the court ruled that her fortunetelling wasn't religious speech, but commercial speech, since she was doing it for a fee, and that she should have had the requisite business license and permits.

In a somewhat similar case last year, the Maryland courts struck down a complete ban on fortune-telling in Montgomery County, ruling that it was not commercial speech and that it had full first amendment protection. The ACLU notes in a story about the Maryland ruling that the Supreme Court has held repeatedly that the mere fact that speech is for profit does not reduce the level of protection it is due.

was contestant axed from reality show for being a satanist?

from metro.co.uk: X Factor viewers watched Kelly Rowland send Jade Richards home in favour of clean-cut acts like Janet Devlin, after reports suggested that Kelly was put off by Jade's passion for satanism. The 21-year-old Fife native impressed Kelly and her fellow judges Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh and Tulisa Contostavlos when she first auditioned and sang Adele hit Someone Like You. But as she was shown the door on tonight's show when Kelly picked her final four girls, friends of Jade claimed that she proved unpopular with her mentor and judging assistant Jennifer Hudson because she is a witch. Her love of The Occult has been well-documented over the past few weeks, with Jade apparently telling friends: "I’m so goth I f**k bats. I want to win X Factor and do it for the goths." But now it seems that her satanist background has cost her a place in the series' live shows, after Kelly was allegedly unhappy with Jade's 'goth' style and her claim to be a witch. A friend told the Daily Star: "She’s tried really hard to tone down her image. Jade knows Kelly doesn’t understand her passion for Satanism and considers her a bit of a freak."

norio hayakawa recaps end times

Norio Hayakawa, ufo researcher, writes essay based on a military report about danger posed to world peace by Apocalyptic Christians. These are viewpoints so deeply intertwined with religious belief systems, there seems little discussion outside religious publications. It is, perhaps, time for a change with apparent convergence of everyday life with so-called "end times". While Pre-millennial, Dispensationalist, and Pre-Tribulation viewpoints are his primary focus, Hayakawa does an even better job of concisely ordering the prophetic events! You will be up to speed in no time on the "end times"!