Greek gods: Poseidon

Poseidon was a very powerful, competitive, and hot-tempered Greek God. You would not want to get on the bad side of a God but Poseidon was known to take revenge on those who got on his bad side. Poseidon has the ability to summon earthquakes with his giant trident, gave him the name Earth Shaker’ due to his relationship with the earth and the sea.

Cronus (Kronos) and Rhea were mother and father to Poseidon and his siblings. However fearing the prophecy that one of his children will overthrow him, he swallowed his each of his newborn children so that the prophecy will not come to pass. Unknown to Cronus, Rhea had hidden Zeus under a herd of lambs, he tricked Cronus into drinking emetic form of poison that made him vomit up his siblings together they overthrew Cronus.

After Zeus, Hades and Poseidon dethroned Cronus and imprisoning the titans, the brother’s decided who will rule which realm of the earth. Poseidon ruled the ocean, Hades ruled the underworld and Zeus the heavens. However, during the early days of Zeus’s rule, Poseidon and Apollo begun a plot to bring down Zeus because they were not happy with his performance as supreme ruler. But soon after, they were caught by Zeus and were sentence to transform into mortals and build a wall around Troy.

Poseidon wanted the king of Troy to pay tribute to him for building this wall but the king failed to do so. Poseidon became angry and punished the city with a monster but he was later slain by Hercules.

Whenever someone mortal or a God displeases Poseidon, he always managed to punish him or her. The King of Crete, pleased with Poseidon for a bull to sacrifice in Poseidon’s name. Poseidon granted his wish and provided one of his finest bulls. Yet, the king became quite fond of the bull and decided to let the bull live. Poseidon was heated to say the least, and ask Aphrodite to make the king’s wife fall in love with the bull. The outcome of their love, came the birth of Minotaur, half-man and half- bull. The king kept Minotaur a secret from the rest of the kingdom.

Poseidon was originally the God of Fertility, so it would only natural for him to have a sexual appetite for women. But unlike his brother Zeus, who would charm or trick women into bed, Poseidon would physically force them to lay down with him. His first victim’ was Athena, goddess of War. Poseidon lost the fight to win Athens over Athena and to make matters worse he was unsuccessful to court with her.

So to spite Athena, he was found in the arms of the beautiful Medusa, courting with her in the temple of Athena. Athena was furious with this and turned Medusa’s hair into snakes. Demeter is one of Poseidon’s infamous rapes, she tried to escape his affection by turning into a horse, yet Poseidon knew of this and turned himself into a stallion and raped her amongst the herd. Yet it has been argued that amongst Mythologist that, for Demeter wanted to put off Poseidon, so she made him create the most beautiful creature on earth, it took him many attempts so by the time he created the horse, he literally had not energy let alone passion for Demeter.

Poseidon did fall in love with Amphitrite, a sea goddess. He did what he knew best and raped her but when she ran and hide at the bottom of the ocean, he knew it was more than a physical attraction. He called upon Delphinus to help him find her and plead with her to marry Poseidon. She agreed and become his Queen.

It wasn’t long before she begun to pick up Poseidon’s jealous traits, Poseidon begun womanising again, this time with Scylla, but Amphitrite threw herbs into the sea whilst he was washing, turning her into a hideous beast of the sea. She is known to be one of the feared monsters of the ocean.

A Cat of a Different Color

One of my favorite films is the Wizard of Oz. Who has not marveled at the color and special effects used in this film way back in the 1930s? The production was nothing short of genius during the dark ages of the special effects industry. One of the most memorable scenes in the movie for me is when Dorothy and her entourage enter Emerald City and the horse drawing their coach keeps changing colors. To draw audience attention to this colorful spectacle the coach driver (who also is the traveling salesman, the doorman to Emerald City and the Wizard himself) announces “Now that is a horse of a different color!”

Now, in real life I have never seen a horse like the one pictured in the film, but I have seen a cat of a different color. In order to tell you about the cat however, I first must tell you about a dog; my dog…”Scooter”.

Scooter was the first dog I ever shared my life with. He came out of a cardboard box sitting in a department store. He cost me $4.99, almost all of my birthday money for that year. I didn’t know it then, but that purchase was perhaps the best value I had ever gotten for my money in my life. He was definitely the best investment, for he paid out years of devotion and friendship that my human friends could never have given me. He was a great companion and friend. He was protective and faithful. He stuck closer to me than a brother no matter where my adventurous travels took us.

On one of our escapades, Scooter and I were at one of our favorite places, the marble yard. Before you picture circles drawn in the dirt with kids shooting glass balls, let me explain that the marble yard was a plant where they cut and stored huge marble slabs. Each slab was as wide as the widest refrigerator and twice as long, weighing several tons each. The slabs were stacked 4 or 5 high with railroad ties between them to give the stacks stability.

There were easily hundreds of stacks on the four acre parcel of land. Each stack was different in shape, size and stability. Some were solid and firm. Others would wobble when you jumped on them from another stack, much like the trick stones on some Disney rides. In retrospect, the wobbling slabs were probably what kept drawing me and the rest of the gang back to play there. It was so much fun being able to rock a multi-ton stone so high off the ground. Typical boys, we never thought about the danger, only the fun.

My gang (a term that did not carry a violent connotation to it in my day) consisted of six or seven pre-teen boys and our dogs. Most of our time together was spent at the marble yard. During mulberry season, you could climb up the slabs and reach the biggest and most juicy berries anywhere. We played Army, using sticks for guns and flung mulberries at each other like kids do today with their paint guns. The only difference was the stain left by mulberries didn’t wash off as easily.

We also played tag, chasing each other around the tops of those stacks. It was a grand place that we all loved with the same passion our mothers loathed it. Many a fractured skull had come crying home from this enchanting place. We were all forbidden to play there, but…

On one particular occasion, only Scooter and I were in the marble yard. I was jumping from stack to stack above, while he chased me from a dozen feet below. The idea of this game was to get away and hide from Scooter so he could search for me. He was really very good at it and I had to scurry around with abandon to get away from him. The fact that I could have fallen and split my head open (again) was not a consideration. We were having too much fun.

I made some quick maneuvers, jumping rapidly across four stacks of marble and felt that I surely had confused and lost Scooter. When I laid down on one of the top slabs and peeked over the edge, he was not there. I peeked over the other side and he wasn’t there either. In fact, he was nowhere to be seen and I started to get concerned. Suddenly, I heard him yelping and barking from what seemed to be a great distance away.

I mountain-goated my way down to the ground and began looking for him. To my surprise I found that he wasn’t very far away at all. He had just been barking from inside a huge hole under one of the bottom slabs. This had muffled the sound and given the impression that he was farther away.

He was aggressively digging and barking under this slab, so I got on my hands and knees to see what he was after. I knew feral cats abounded in the marble yard and often had their kittens under the slabs, so it did not surprise me to see the silhouette of a cat back in the dark, under the slab, near to where Scooter was.

I egged him on by saying “get him Scooter, get him boy”. Now, before you think me an insensitive wretch or cat hater, please let me explain. I love cats and would do nothing to endanger them. Scooter was all bark. He always had been. I knew it and he knew it. He was a very fast dog. He had often chased cats and rabbits down, but when he caught them, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do next. So he would back off and just look at them. Even when a cat spat or swiped at him, he would just sit with a stupid grin on his face and ultimately turn and run off.

He apparently knew that chasing cats was what dogs did, but I guess no one ever explained to him why. His modus operandi was to chase, catch and hold down; then back off and watch them. He never bit them, never growled, and never stayed interested in them very long after the chase. He just seemed to like to run after them to prove he was faster. He never hurt any of them and I knew this time would be the same

So, knowing this, I had no reservations about egging him on. After doing so, I maneuvered myself to the place I thought the cat would exit when Scooter successfully flushed him out so I could catch him. Right on cue, the cat came running out and I jumped forward to catch it. Everything happened so quickly after that I cannot recall the exact order of events, but I do remember noting that it was the most strangely colored cat I had ever seen. It was black with beautiful white stripes and a very fluffy tail. In fact, it was a cat of a different color.

This thought was immediately followed by a very strange event. Like magic, right before my eyes, this beautifully colored cat transformed itself into a skunk, and a very angry one at that. I had no time to react. I was airborne, in the middle of my lunge for the “cat” when Scooter came shooting out of the hole behind him.

I don’t know how I managed it, but somehow I changed direction in mid-air and decided on a sage plan of escape. I think I might have made it too, except for Scooter. In keeping with his routine, he jumped on the back of the skunk and, to be honest, I don’t really remember what happened next, except to say that the immediate area was enveloped in a rather sickening cloud of skunk musk.

The only experience I have ever had that came close to that nauseating encounter was the day I went through the gas chamber training at the Naval Recruit Training Center in San Diego. At least then a quick shower took the gas residue off. Not so skunk musk. Everything you see in the cartoons is true. Your eyes burn, your skin burns, your face burns and you cannot breathe without gagging.

And you have to scrub. My mother scrubbed Scooter and me raw and when she was done doing that, she scrubbed us again. Scooter and I both got butch hair cuts and a bath of tomato juice that day. And then mom scrubbed us again. My mother was finally getting revenge for all the gray hairs the marble yard had caused her.

Scooter and I both learned a valuable lesson that day. There is no such thing as a cat of a different color!

Anime reviews: Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon, Geek or Heroine?

Sailor Moon, a.k.a Serena, is a gawky teenage girl who attends school, trips alot, and makes a fool of herself; but then, when the need arises, she transforms herself into Sailor Moon, the gawky teenage leader of the Sailor Scouts and defender of Goodness and Justice. Even in the alter-ego Super Heroine guise that fights evil, she, more often than not, makes a fool of herself before actually standing up and making the scene.

The Sailor Scouts, Sailor Moon’s fighting friends who often, like real people, cannot get along very well, are named for the planets in the solar system, in the order of their transition into the troop, as follows: Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus, Sailor Pluto, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Mini Moon, and finally Sailor Saturn. Each of these girls has a power unto herself that nobody else can use as well as fears and hang-ups that cause problems. After all, these teenagers ARE teenagers, regardless of the fact that they are reincarnated from a fierce squad of fighters from the Moon Kingdom.

In the beginning, there was only Serena, exposed to her alter-ego Sailor Moon by her black, talking cat, Luna. As she fumbles around to use her powers and fight the evil entities led by the evil Queen Barrow of the Negaverse, she also stumbles upon allies. Each of the Sailor Scouts has her beginnings in different ways. For example, Mercury is the demure book-worm with the power of water, whereas Sailor Mars is fierce with the power of fire. Even the older boy that Serena is tormented by, Darien, turns out to be a great ally to her as Tuxedo Mask. Some of her allies begin as enemies or lures, only to die as sacrifice.

The story arcs continuously as the Sailor Scouts find new team members, as they learn about their past as the Moon Princess and her court, as Serena falls in love with Darien and later Darien returns the emotions, and as Serena and Darien learn of their child Rini who was sent into their presence as protection. Each arc in the series (not all of which are mentioned herein) seems to begin with many goof-ball enemies that are ridiculous to the point of extremes. If you are able to ignore the strange monsters and the goofy sub-plots, there you will find a powerful storyline underlying the entire plot. A strong story of romance, revenge, loss, sacrifice, and good versus evil can be discerned. You may laugh, you may want to turn off some episodes, but I dare say to keep your eyes glued to the screen as the true power of the show will send you to tears as often as exasperated remarks. My consensus is that this series is very inspiring when you can disregard some of the actions of its main character, who grows and develops as a leader through the course of different story arcs. If you watch one series you will want to watch more, it is addictive.

«Трансформеры-2» – мир или перемирие?

Режиссер первой части легендарных «Трансформеров» («Transformers») Майкл Бэй (Michael Bay), поделился с журналистами некоторыми сведениями о сценарии второй части (как известно, режиссер задумал снять трилогию о гигантских роботах).

Действия фильма начинаются, когда героиня Меган Фокс (Megan Fox) Микаэла Бейнс приезжает навестить учащегося в престижном колледже Сэма Уитвики, в котором можна узнать все того же Шиа ЛаБэфа (Shia LaBeouf). Уже отснята сцена опоздания Сэма на лекцию астрономии. В роли лектора выступил Рэинн Уилсон (Rainn Wilson).

Но не рассказ режиссера стал сенсацией, а слух о том, что в «Мести павших» («Revenge of the Fallen») добрые Автоботы объединятся со своими злейшими врагами Десептиконами против общего врага. Подтвердит студия или опровергнуть слух – узнаем уже в июне следующего года.

Best of 2008: Invention

2008 has been a year of innovation like no other. We have seen the world’s fastest computer, aptly named Roadrunner, break the petaflop barrier, performing more than a quadrillion calculations per second. A new camera specially developed for the blind projects a raised tactile impression of its images to the user’s forehead. For the first time, a new technology can bend light around three-dimensional objects, leaving behind not even a shadow. Even “personal DNA testing can now easily be obtained on the retail shelves for a single low fee of $399 USD, offering genetic analysis of more than ninety traits and conditions with a simple saliva test.

The Chevrolet Volt has completed preliminary testing. Unlike hybrids, the Volt operates entirely off a battery power for the first 40 miles of driving, only then switching over to its 4-cylinder combustion engine to recharge the battery. Even then, the combustion engine does not directly power the car, since it is not connected to the wheels but to a 53-kilowatt generator. According to Times Magazine, 80% of us drive less than 40 miles at a stretch anyway, so all that time we would be using no gas at all. It will be rechargeable simply by plugging it into a regular household outlet. It is rumoured that a thermovoltaic solar panelled roof, capable of charging the battery simply by leaving the car in the sun, will be offered as an optional feature.

Outside the advertising campaign which began with its official unveiling in September 2008, the Volt will also feature in the 2009 Transformers sequel “Revenge of the Fallen.” The Volt is due to arrive on the retail market by 2010.

In the meantime, a small Canadian automobile company has already quietly released its own electric car to the market. So far, every test driver who has driven it has fallen in love with it. The ZENN car (which stands for Zero Emission No Noise) runs on six 12-volt batteries and a 5.5 horsepower engine. “No noise” is a completely accurate description. It runs in utter silence, allowing you to enjoy the sounds of nature or of your favourite CD without having to overcrank the volume over the sounds of the engine. To recharge your little ZENN, you just plug it into a regular household outlet.

The ZENN technology does not end with the current model. The car’s developer Ian Clifford envisions an entire ZENN line of small and mid-sized cars capable of distances of 400 kilometres after just a five-minute battery charge.

The current model of ZENN car is street-legal in 45 out of 50 states. Its retail price runs between $12,000 and $15,000 USD.

Does the media cause crime?

The media does not cause crime. Society – with its fallibility, mutability, inequalities, hypocrisies and prejudices does. The media only makes crime into a bloody spectator sport. It transforms ordinary citizens into the testosterone-charged, bloodthirsty gladiator audiences of ancient Rome, marveling in the brutal slaughter of their fellow men, intrigued by the fantastical methods of their murders, thanking Jupiter that it wasn’t them that were decapitated by a scimitar and fed to the ravenous lions.

In today’s society, the media, through its multitude of sinister but subtle mediums, dramatizes crime and often glorifies the criminal. The media provides detailed descriptions of the crime the location, the nature of the crime, the implements used, the ultimate resolution. This catapults the average, law-abiding citizen into the action. In other words, the nave consumers are hoodwinked into buying the next day’s newspaper, in order to follow this intriguing serialized news story.

All this is harmless enough, so far. People working in mind-numbingly bland office jobs, trapped in a stagnant marriages, tormented by a rowdy brood of offspring, need their entertainment. However, the media’s hyperbolic representations of crimes, in their avaricious pursuit of ratings, somewhat absolves the criminal and somehow makes them heroic. For instance, by propagating the tragic life story of Mr X, who has just shot his three-year-old daughter and then, himself, the media has created a martyr. The same goes for Mrs P, who robbed a bank to sponsor her son’s university education.

The media knows full well that human beings have always had a penchant for the law-breaker, the rebel, the daring individuals who dare to cross the line that they themselves shy from. Why else do women fall for bad boys’ and men femme fatales’? People inevitably fall for the criminal streak.The media exploits this sadistic obsession to the full, by in turn, presenting the sympathetic, pathetic side to the most malicious of psychopaths.

And the consequences of this exploitation? To impressionable minds, the media seems to be going so far as to condone crime, as it glorifies and places audacious criminals on pedestals. To desperate minds, the media represents the most powerful medium that will convey their message to the world. The publicity that the media unfailingly delivers may often be the impetus for horrific crimes such as school shootings they are often cries for help, for attention, or expressions of pure hatred and revenge.

Nevertheless, the media does not directly cause crime, although it is culpable for dramatizing crimes to suit its commercial purposes. In order to discover the true roots of criminality, we must examine the society itself. Would the frustrated Mr X have taken such extreme measures if national legislation had been different, and he was granted co-custody of his daughter, rather than supervised visits once a month? Would Mrs P have resorted to holding the bank at gunpoint if there were improved social support schemes or increased government funding to reduce university fees? For, if there did indeed exist an uncorrupted institutional justice in a society, there would be no need for individuals to impose their own instinctive justice and break the conventional laws.

Why some people are afraid of dying, and some arent

“Do you fear death?” – Davy Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End

“To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” – Professor Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

“Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not. Miss them do not. Attachment leads to jealously. The shadow of greed, that is.”- Yoda, Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

“Soon will I rest, yes, forever sleep. Earned it I have. Twilight is upon me, soon night must fall.”- Yoda, Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

These four quotations are some of my favorite death-related quotes. I especially love the first one because Davy Jones asks that, and if they so no, he kills them and if they say yes, they join him on The Flying Dutchman. And those that do not fear death are truly the lucky ones.

Now, the second quotation has been a personal favorite for years because it basically says that if you do not fear death and if you have a well-organized mind about it, it is the next great adventure. It brings me goosebumps everytime I read it.

Now these two Yoda quotes basically explain to me why some people fear death and others don’t. Because we are afraid of the unknown and we are afraid of leaving or losing the ones we love, just like Anakin was in Revenge of the Sith, and his son, Luke was in Empire Strikes Back. And, for some people fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of them all. I mean, fear of what we do not know is perfectly normal, for the most part. We fear what we do not know because we do not understand. We don’t know what dying is like and that scares some people. But for others it does not, and Dumbledore’s quote and the second Yoda quote explains it. Because for those of us who have well-organized minds, to them, death is just another adventure, because there may be an afterlife, and that is adventure.

If we look at the Jedi. Look at some of the Jedi who have died in the six Star Wars films, in particular Yoda, Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon, and possibly Darth Vader. Look what happens after they die. Darth Vader and Qui-Gon were either afraid of death or had not accepted it, because they did not disappear into nothingness. With the later, since his death was sudden, he had not accepted it yet, and Darth Vader had always feared death, look at how he reacted to those awful dreams of his mother and his wife. Now, Yoda and Obi-Wan, they both had accepted their deaths and were not afraid of dying, so they disappeared into nothingness and became one with the Force.

Darwinism is the Ideological Basis of Satanism

Satanism is a perverted ideology that makes violence and savagery a ritual in its creed. Satanists, who describe themselves as such, make deeds of inhumanity and brutality into acts of worship.

Due to the influence of the media, they may think of satanists as performing strange rituals, much unlike what ordinary and well-balanced people would otherwise do. It is true that satanists are part of a culture of violence and perform strange and horrible rites, yet, what most people fail to see is that satanism is a materialist and atheist ideology that supports violence and which dates back to the 1800s. Furthermore, the ideology has a large number of followers throughout the world.

The fundamental principle of satanism is that it rejects all religious values, takes the Devil as its deity, and claims that hell is a kind of salvation. According to the belief of Satanism, people have no responsibilities, apart from that of following their own desires. If his desires lead a person to anger, hatred, revenge, deceit, theft, the harming others or even murder, then that is acceptable.

One of the most common ways satanists use to describe themselves, in their books, magazines and publications, as well as their websites, is to regard man as a “kind of developed animal,” and to maintain that “only the fittest can survive.” This is the most important piece of evidence to corroborate that Darwinism lies at the very root of the satanists’ beliefs. In fact, many satanists do not hesitate to admit the fact. In A Description of Satanism, a satanist writer describes the ideology in these terms:

…First of all, Humans are social animals… all people and animals share a common source in mere biology. Satanism is the belief that Humans are nothing more than higher animals—we have no special place in creation other than being lucky to have evolved and survived…

It is clear from the preceding that satanism regards Darwin’s theory that human beings evolved from animals, as the source of its own ideological “awareness.” The introduction to an interview with Anton LaVey, carried in the music journal MF Magazine, describes the relationship between Satanism and Darwinism:

In the late 1960s, Anton LaVey brought forth an easily understandable doctrine of social Darwinism, and strong positive thinking (magic) to the growing mass of individuals sick of both hippieism and the stagnant morals of Christianity.

The way satanism shares so many parallels with social darwinism, has led to cooperation between it and a number of other racist and chauvinistic movements, especially fascism. One can find many individuals who believed in Satanism among the ranks of Hitler’s National Socialists and Mussolini’s Blackshirts. Anton LaVey makes this reference to that collaboration:

It’s an unholy alliance. Many different types of such people have made contact with us in the past. The anti-Christian strength of National Socialist Germany is part of the appeal to Satanists—the drama, the lighting, the choreography with which they moved millions of people.

Darwinism is the primary ground shared between these tendencies and satanism. Social darwinism, which lies at the heart of all these deviant ideologies, is defended by satanists as follows:

The principle of the survival of the strong is advocated on all levels of society, from allowing an individual to stand or fall, to even letting those nations that cannot handle themselves take the consequences of this inability… There would be a concomitant reduction in the world’s population as the weak are allowed to experience the consequences of social Darwinism. Thus has nature always acted to cleanse and strengthen her children… We embrace reality and do not try to transform it into some utopia that is contrary to the very fabric of existence.

Another expression of the satanists’ attachment to social darwinism is their fierce support for the theory of eugenics, itself the product of fascism. The theory of eugenics maintained that the sick and the crippled ought to be eliminated from society, and the number of healthy individuals increased through breeding. The theory was most prominently implemented in Nazi Germany. According to the theory of eugenics, in the same way that healthy animal stock is bred by mating healthy species, by this way a race of humans also be improved. When this line of thinking was adopted in Nazi Germany, tens of thousands of people with genetic and mental diseases were slaughtered ruthlessly.

Satanism is also in favor of the same terrible mercilessness. Their own publications reveal their view on eugenics:

Satanists also seek to enhance the laws of nature by concentrating on fostering the practice of eugenics… It is the practice of encouraging people of talent and ability to reproduce, to enrich the gene pool from which our species can grow. This was commonly practiced throughout the world… Until the genetic code is cracked and we can choose the character of our offspring at will, Satanists seek to mate the best with the best. (Magister Peter Gilmore, Satanism the Feared Religion, (http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/Feared.html))

We need to bear in mind the satanists’ own views when considering the threat posed by it. When satanists are asked how many of them there are, they claim to have large numbers of followers, because there are many people who actually live by the tenets of satanism without being aware of the fact. In a way, that is actually the case.

The claim that man is a species of animal, on which satanism is founded, is utter nonsense. Mankind did not come into being as the result of blind chance. The Creator of mankind, and of the order and splendor of the entire universe, is the infinitely powerful, superior and All-Wise God, Who has no weakness of any kind. He created man with the ability to think and reason, to distinguish between right and wrong, and also with a responsibility towards his Creator. Just as each individual’s ego direct him towards evil, so his conscience protects him from it, and commands him to turn away from it. It is man’s duty to listen to the voice of his conscience, not to his ego and adopt the kind of morality that is pleasing to God. That morality will not only allow the individual concerned, and the society in which he lives, to enjoy a peaceful and secure existence, but will also, by the will of God, lead to the most sublime reward in the hereafter.

One important fact that must not be lost sight of is that the life satan offers, which he dresses up to appear so very attractive, is mere deception. satan may make all kinds of promises about the possibilities of the life of this world, and may try to turn people away form the true path, yet, it must not be forgotten that the road he beckons man to follow will only lead to ultimate destruction for those who take it. As God explains in a verse:

… What they call on is an arrogant Satan whom God has cursed. He said, “I will take a certain fixed proportion of Your servants. I will lead them astray and fill them with false hopes. I will command them and they will cut off cattle’s ears. I will command them and they will change God’s creation.” Anyone who takes the Devil as his protector in place of God has clearly lost everything. (Surat an-Nisa’, 117-119)

The Magic Skirt

There was once a lady, sober in mind and sedate in manner, whose plain dress exactly represented her desire to be inconspicuous, to do good, to improve every day of her life in actions that should benefit her kind. She was a serious person, and she had a distaste for the gay society which was mainly a flutter of ribbons and talk and pretty faces; and when she meditated, as she did in her spare moments, her heart was sore over the frivolity of life and the emptiness of fashion. She longed to make the world better, and without any priggishness she set it an example of simplicity and sobriety, of cheerful acquiescence in plainness and inconspicuousness.

One day–it was in the autumn–this lady had occasion to buy a   new skirt . From a great number offered to her she selected a bright colored one with floral prints. It did not match with the rest of her apparel; it did not fit her apparent character.  What impulse led to this selection she could not explain. She was not tired of being good, but something in the texture of the skirt and the color pleased her. If it were a temptation, she did not intend to yield to it, but she thought she would take the skirt home and try it. Perhaps her nature felt the need of a little warmth. The skirt pleased her still more when she got it home and put it on and surveyed herself in the mirror. Indeed, there was a new expression in her face that corresponded to the skirt. She looked at it. There was something almost humanly winning and temptatious in it. In short, she kept it, and when she wore it abroad she was not conscious of its incongruity to herself, but of the incongruity of the rest of her apparel to the skirt, which seemed to have a sort of intelligence of its own, at least a power of changing and conforming things to itself. By degrees one article after another in the lady’s wardrobe was laid aside, and another substituted for it that answered to the demanding spirit of the skirt. In a little while this plain lady was not plain any more, but most gorgeously dressed, and possessed with the desire to be in the height of the fashion.

But this was not all. Her disposition, her ideas, her whole life, was changed. She did not any more think of going about doing good, but of amusing herself. She read nothing but stories in paper covers. In place of being sedate and sober-minded, she was frivolous to excess; she spent most of her time with women who liked to "frivol." She kept Lent in the most expensive way, so as to make the impression upon everybody that she was better than the extremest kind of Lent. From liking the sedatest company she passed to liking the gayest society and the most fashionable method of getting rid of her time. Nothing whatever had happened to her, and she is now an ornament to society.

This story is not an invention; it is a leaf out of life. If this lady that autumn day had bought a plain skirt she would have continued on in her humble, sensible way of living. Clearly it was the skirt that made the woman, and not the woman the skirt. She had no preconception of it; it simply happened to her, like any accident–as if she had fallen and sprained her ankle. Some people may say that she had in her a concealed propensity for frivolity; but the skirt cannot escape the moral responsibility of calling it out if it really existed. The power of things to change and create character is well attested.  

Men live up to or live down to their clothes, which have a great moral influence on manner, and even on conduct. There was a man run down almost to vagabondage, owing to his increasingly shabby clothing, and he was only saved from becoming a moral and physical wreck by a remnant of good-breeding in him that kept his worn boots well polished. In time his boots brought up the rest of his apparel and set him on his feet again. Then there is the well-known example of the honest clerk on a small salary who was ruined by the gift of a repeating watch–an expensive timepiece that required at least ten thousand a year to sustain it: he is now in Canada.

Sometimes the influence of Things is good and sometimes it is bad. We need a philosophy that shall tell us why it is one or the other, and fix the responsibility where it belongs. It does no good, as people always find out by reflex action, to kick an inanimate thing that has offended, to smash a perverse watch with a hammer, to break a rocking-chair that has a habit of tipping over backward. If Things are not actually malicious, they seem to have a power of revenging themselves. We ought to try to understand them better, and to be more aware of what they can do to us. If the lady who bought the skirt could have known the hidden nature of it, could have had a vision of herself as she was transformed by it, she would as soon have taken a viper into her bosom as have tied the skirt around her waist. Her whole previous life, her feeling of the moment, show that it was not vanity that changed her, but the inconsiderate association with a Thing that happened to strike her fancy, and which seemed innocent. But no Thing is really powerless for good or evil.

The rationale behind the banishment of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

In Genesis we are told of: Adam and Eve the progenitors of all humanity,the first caretakers of God’s Creation. What a wonderful account in Genesis of how God created the first man from dust,and the first woman from his rib. This introduction for me is one of excitement and anticipation of great and wonderful things.

The communion with God in the cool of the Garden of Eden; the fellowship they enjoyed the instructions of His garden to dress it and keep, and they were free to eat of the gardens’ vegetation, but of the Tree of Knowledge, of good and evil, they were warned, and pre-sentenced to death.

We are not told though, that in heaven there had been a revolt of the Angelic Ministry, and one angel in particular, Lucifer(Morning Star) had lead(one thide)of the angelic host against God, and they were throng down to earth level. They were banished from heaven never to return, and now this Lucifer was transformed to be called Satan(adversary), or the Devil(Deceiver) and his mission was one of revenge.

So now the stage is set for this fallen minister to find God’s out-post.His connection in this place that he and his co-conspirators must now live in. He must of thought were does God go when he walks in this realm of existence?.

We’re told of Satan’s’ earthly activities in Job 1:6,7, and it says: ‘Now there was a day when the sons of god came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them, Verse 7(seven) goes on: And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD,and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it’.

This biblical mystery of how he got to the Garden of Eden, and ultimately how he was able to effect the lives of Adam and Eve, and help cause their BANISHMENT comes to focus.

The affect that Lucifer caused in heaven was to question the authority of God and the absolute will of God, this angelic transgression would challenge and change the cosmos of His creation and will, so Lucifer had to go, but where? He could no longer remain in the Divine Eternal the infection of this disobedience would destroy Heaven eventually.

He had to place him somewhere outside of the Immediate Eternal Throne, and that is why he chose Earth. At this moment in History there was no TIME because there was no SIN!, in(other words) time is the vehicle of death, and because there was no death there was no need to assign a limit to life with time. We are told also in Roman

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