A History of Wallachia

Mircea the Old: Father of Wallachia, Grandfather of Dracula by A.K. Brackob
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mircea the Old

The land of Dracula has always been an area of turbulence both politically and miliatraily. The name of this land has been mistakenly called Transylvania, but it's real name was Wallachia. At times this land was called Dacia, Cumania and other names. Now it is part of Romania. The orignal inhabitants were called Vlach which may have meant shepherd. Which would make sense because most areas were small villages with wood huts and the forts were also made of wood. When invader came the inhabitatnt would hide in the forests and hide keeping them sage from dangers. Many people came through this land over the centuries. Ethnic groups like saxon, and slavs came in and blended with the locals and of course leaving their imprint. The Saxon helped and in fact built some of the first major cities like Brasov
The area also housed renegade and schismatics from other realms of Europe. Such groups woud have included political exiles, religious renegades and some of the Knights Templar. At times other Knightly groups from Europe would arrive there for various military purposes. Political exiles from Hungary would end up in Wallachia which would troubles between the two realms. A little bit later for that.
The first founder of the Basarb Dynasty was called the Black voivode. There is speculation tht he was of Turkish or Tatar in origin. The name of the Black voivode was Thocomer, his some was Basarab. It is storngly believed that the black voivode was an ousider not native to the Wallachian realm.
During this time period the Christian powers such as Hungary, Byzantium, and Transyvania were at odds with each other. The tatars or the Golden Horde arrived and they conquered lots of territory. These tatars on certain occasions converted to Christianity. They were a turkic mongolian people. A combination of them and the Slavs helped form the Nation of Bulgaria. Basarab for his part had several alliances with these Turkik people. Yet there was also a treaty with Hungary which went pretty well save that Wllachia was harboring undesirables. By an large Basarab was catholic. He married a women of French origin named Margaret. Religion to him/was for political expediency as was marriage back in those times.
Relations began to change between Hungaray and Wallachia after an illfated military venture with Bulgaria. Bulgrai attacked Serbia and the Serbians won. This left Basaab week and the Hungarians moved in. Basarab made several overtures to the Hungarian king which were rebuffed. After some nobles encouraged the Hungarian king to accept he did so. In the end as the Hungairain troops were leaving Basarab ambushed them killed them. This was the battle of Posada.
Bssarabs son Nicholas Alexander ruled alongside him for a bit. Nicholas Alexander was also Catholic. During his tenure Tatar power was in decline and the Bulgarians were weakened. Teodora Nicholas Alexander's sister was divorced from Bulgarias leader. This ended a political alliance. Nicholas Alexander realined with Hungary. While accepting Hungarian overlordship , in order to guaruntee his autonomy he made alliances with the Orthodox Church. After a revolt from a Romanian viovode , Nicholas Alexander broke away from Hungary for the rest of his reign.
vladislav was Nicholas Alexanders son who took over after he died. During Vladislav`s tenure the Ottomans gained a foothold in southern Europe. the Ottomans were intent on seizing Christian Europe. Europe at this time was very divided as their were schisms in the church. The Turks on the other hand were unified. After Nocholas's death, Hungary wanted to attack wallachia, but instead of attacking wallachia they veered to Bulagaria and made conquest there. This altered the balance of power. THe Byzantines in vain sought European support against Turkish agression. Wallachia seems to have gotten back in alignment with Hungary. Bulgrai and Turkey attacked Hungary and Wallachia proved to be a valuable ally for Hungary. Wallachia and Hungry would have religious diferences later on.
The rest of Mircea's reign was a balance of various powers agaist one another in an arena of shifting alliances. At times Mircea would side with Hungary and at other times he would side wit the Ottommans. His strategies included pacification, interfering with Ottoman politics and breaking his word and siding with the stronger in a conflcit if it benefited him. Once he helped place an Ottoman leader on the throne in a conflcit with his brother. It was a fruitful plan but ultimatley that leader would be deposed and Mircea would submit bak to the Ottoman`s rule. Once he did this his rule was quiet until the end of his days. Being a wise politician he supported the Orthodox church by funding monasteries and churches. He also suppported the Catholic church and made sure the religious leader he backed reported strictly to Rome and not hungary. Despite the fact that Christendom was under threat by the Ottoman peril, they were very disunited. France and England were at war. There were schisms in the church and the countries had their own internal issues to face.
At the end of the day Wallachia stood on it`s own. Shrewed ledership kept the area safe from attack and allowed them independence. After Mircea passed other powers would interfere with Wallachian politics by backing one or some other pretender to the throne. No room for honest politicians in this realm. Shrewed ones only.

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Let the Devil Speak

The Devil's Bible by Allan Lavey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let the devil speak it is his turn at last. This is one great book but there is nothing devilish about it. It is nothing less than a very magical tome that bespeaks of our true potential as human being. Know you this human being you are not some miniscule creature crawling on the face of the earth but rather you are a god unto yourself. If you dare to read this book and apply its life lesson you will be a liberated being who can reach your potential. Indeed this book has many messages.
Since I got from memory without referencing the book after reading it I will share some of the messages that I received but please bear in mind that this book contains so much more. Perhaps the most poignant message is reaffirming how powerful and how important we really are. Our mere presence creates such an impact on the world at large that it is almost impossible to measure. The author has called this the Nexus theory or the Chaos theory. There is also the message that fees us from the opinion of other. Worrying about others opinion of us makes us slaves to their point of view. Shall we talk about people who we think are friends, many may not be true they want to be with you not because they like or love but because they want to use you. Others will pretend to keep us down and prevent us from rising to our true potential. Those that keep us down we need to let go of them and move on….push forward. Don’t get caught up in the miniscule conflicts that bog us down leave those aside and concentrate on your own wonderful being. There are exercise contained therein to help achieve calm and relaxation.
Towards the end we do hear the devil speak although he is not the devil rather he is Lucifer the Light Bringer. He never fell from Heaven , he is still at the right hand of God. The arch angel and our guardian angels all have our best interests in mind. They protect us and they teach us. The deities exist also and are expressions of the divine. To be honest though the authors do tell us to get closer to god. He is the source of all. There are several prayers to God, angels and few for the devil.

At the books end there are instructions for a magical bath and clearing out your house. If interested let me know or better yet get the book. The instruction are simple and easy to follow. This is a blessing because many times magic books make things so complex. There are prayers for just about everything and instruction on how to charge a sigil. At the end are some example of sigils that you can use.

This is a tome of liberation. Remember that magical workers connect with the divine the force of creation and they help create the world in their own image. Remember that the devil is not the evil guys waiting around the corner to mess you up. The church fathers needed a boogey man to scapegoat all our sins. A figment of some twisted old man’s imaginations. Be free do not let guilt hold you back or down ask for forgiveness and if one has wronged you be sure to forgive as well. Society tries to keep [us down but this book will help you rise to heights of spiritual greatness. By the way my wife leafed through the book and wanted to read it when I was done. That is a first.


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Path of the Jewish Mystic

Path of the Kabbalah by David Sheinkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This man has definitely sat on the shoulder of giants and seen far into the distance . Not a bad piece of work for a medical doctor who is not a rabbi. No less the way he writes makes sense and he relays some pretty heavy concepts down to layman terms.

Starting off it is mentioned that Jewish mysticism and the path of Torah are just one of many paths one can traverse upon to reach the pinnacle of Godhead. Systems can even be developed much like they are in New Age movement but these systems which are hodge podge of things taken from different spiritual paths. This could limit their effectiveness as they lack a proper system of checks and balances.

Judaism itself is rather deep. Most are familiar with the written Torah which consists of the five Books of Moses, Prophets and the Writings. There is more further explanation was contained in the Oral Torah. Kabbalah not mentioned in the Torah is the inner working of the Universe.

Much of Kabbalist knowledge is not contained in the Torah. FOr example take the word for God, he is called the ain sof, that without end. This epithet is not mentioned once in the Bible. The other name for god like Elokim, Adoni, Jehovah are not names of god but rather names of his attributes he created in order to work with the physical world. The top three are too holy for us humans so we only deal with the lower seven. These attributes are called the Sefirote. They are what god uses to interface with us. Ain Sof or god is beyond male and female or even the spiritual. It is unchanging. THe sefirote interact with us, change us and are in turn changed by us. Gods power is too strong for us to be near to so there has to be distance like the Earth from the sun. To get his power for our benefit we need step down stations so it is not too strong for us.

Most of existence is fillled by the Ain Sof or the light of Ain Sof. To make room for creation God had to constrict himself. It left a small dot which would fill our realm, the spiritual realm and five different universes. It gets complicated. Needless to say we are in the realm action Assiyut. Too dwell in other realms would put us too close to God which would be bad for us. Then fifth universe is Adam Kadmon or primordial man. That is in charge of everything .

In the beginning the Sephirote broke apart because the light was too intense .They were reformed as five partzufin. THe sephirote exist forever on the spiritual realm. They interact in combinations. Every Sephora contains all the other sephirote.

This short book chock full of information is only 192 pages. This book is excellent for those wishing to get their feet wet in Mysrtical Judaism.It is also. Excellent for intermediate learners. Great explanation of concepts and some cool mediation’s at the end.

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The zdark Side of Avalon Pagan Pedophiles

The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon by Moira Greyland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I remember the impact Marion Zimmer Bradley’s book made upon me. It was one of my favorites and the only one of her books that I truly liked. This retelling of king Authrur has included elements of incest, homosexuality and forbidden loves. Not like Arthur did not have a romance with his sister in the original or that Lancelot did not fall for Guenivere. There was no homosexuality in the original, but if it were true all that stuff would be there.

Moira Greyland , a few years older than myself, lived through Hell. Being the daughter of Marion Zimmer Bradley is no cakewalk. Marion was abusive physically and sexually. Marion grew up on a farm near New York and her family was very abusive. Walter Breen, the husband and father, was an abandoned orphan.

The Boondoggle Affair happened at one of those Science Fiction conventions when it became known that Walter was molesting young boys. He would later meet Marion and they would settle down in Berkeley.

Moira and her two brothers grew up in a hippie / pagan version of Hell. Walter was a nusmatist or a coin expert. Very bright he was one of those types who was a little bit weird. He could not take care of himself and he had a penchant for young boys.

In the sixties he wrote a book called a Greek Love, where in he stated that homosexuality between boys and men was the norm. He also believed that young boys or girls for that matter should be able to choose on their own if they want sex with adults or other children. In Berkeley if one was not sexually liberated enough one was called a prude. According to Moira the parents wanted to raise her as a lesbian. Parents shunned things that made boys too masculine or women to feminine.

All the while growing up Moira was adware of how her father victimized young boys including her boyfriends. Moira herself was victimized by both her mother and father. The results of this lead to aa severe case of PTSD and a sojourn in a mental hospital.

For me this book was an eye opener. All along the way Pagans are coming up as perverts and child molesters. Kenny Klein was a most poignant example. Some example mentioned in her book mention Isaac Bonewitz who asked Marion if he could get sexual favors from Moira. Lewis Carrol used to photograph little girls naked.
It seems that strange attitudes regarding sex are not only tolerated in Pagan, Sci Fi and ren fair circuits but encouraged .


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