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Friday, September 20, 2024

History of Old Horney

















 The Horned God of the Witches

By Jason Mankey

the two figures that stand out most in modern Wicca are the Lord and Lady or the Goddess and the Horned God. There are many horned gods in old paganism. You have Pan, Dionysus, Cernununos etc. Which one of these horned gods the witches wish to honor is up to them. Some witches jus work with a generic "the Horned God" So Jason Mankey unpacks the horned god for us. How people picture deity can get rather interesting. Some see each of the horned gods as separate deities unto themselves, each with their own identity. Others see the horned god as a deity encompassing all of h honred gods. Yet even other witches see the deities as aspects of themselves something to be evoked out of them.


the main basis for the horned god is the Celtic Cernunnos and Pan.  Pan is an easy god to learn about. There is a whole mythology abou the god complete with stories and everything. thre were shrines dedicatd to Pan. This horned god, upper half human lower part goat with some horns. He was a god of ecstasy, wine and he loved fornication with just about anyone or anything. Pan was a god of shepherds and he owned the Arcadian wilderness. His loud shout could cause panic. Cernunnos is a Celtic god with no known mythology about him. He does have shrines set up to him all over th place in Europe. Both o these horned gods are phalic gods and sometimes havea phallus representing them. There are some indications that Shiva might have ben an inspiration of Cernunnos.


The author covers some other horned deities as well. Jason goes over Dionysus, Herne the hunter, the devil, the witch father and Krampus. I may have missed a few so you will have to go back to the book and check.At the end of each chapter there is a ritual one can perform if they wish to build a relationship with that particular god. The author exposes some historical inaccuracies that have crept into the historiography. The God is also evolving as is Wicca. He is becoming less of a horned god and more of a universal god.  Wicca and witchcraft used to be focused on the horned god  but now the emphasis has shifted to the goddess. Great book totaly enjoyed it.

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Eating Bitter in Shaolin

 







American Shaolin


By Matthew Polly


Matthew was a student at Princeton who wanted to learn genuine kung Fu.  The best way to do that is to go to China and learn kung Fu at the Shaolin Monastery. Of course now they call it the WuShu center. When the communists took over they took all the combat out of kung Fu and called it WuShu.  When he wanted to go over there he consulted with a professor from China who said that if he wanted to learn kung Fu he had better learn to eat bitter.  In other get ready fro  grueling hard work.  His parents were dead set against it and he had some self esteem issues.


Arriving in China was an adventure. First off hardly anyone knew how to find it. He hasd to ask directions and take varied routes to get there. Upon arriving there the communis officials in charge of he monastery agree to take him and charge him for lesson and rent. He ends up living in a nearby hotel. As a foreigner he is called a low wai and it does not garner tha much respect.  He has several near romances as it is not considered proper for a chinese woman to be with a low wai. If a woman is in a mans hotel room after midnght it is considered illegal and she would be a courtesan. He has several adventure while training. He is not the only Low wai. There is a German guy who comes over and a chinese american kid Matthew's age. One foreigner finds Jesus while in the shaolin monastery and promptly leaves. 


The Chinese American is named John. His entrepeneurial father sent him to learn kung Fu to get some discipline. They have drinking adventures together and they have gil chasing adventure. At one point Jon meets a dancer ho broke up with a chinese mafioso.  John asks Matthew for help and gets some weapons and advice from one of the coaches . He goes over to the mafiosos hotel and threaten the manager. They nver hear from the mafiosos again. At one point John injures himself and this leads to a confrontation in the hospital where in the doctors are unprofessional and lazy and it is up to Mattew o confront them about medical cleanliness.


throughout his journey he has sparring matches in some he is a typical low wai nd in others he wins the fight and brings honor to Shaolin. He also studies Sanda which is chinese kickboxing. He details how this martial art is different from Shaolin kung Fu and Thai Kickboxing. He ends up goin back to America. He visits China much later and finds thart everything has modernized. Some Shaolin monks migrate to America.

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One blond hair blue eyed Calfornian who totally digs the Middle East.