Djinn Among us

 

Bijou means Jewel in French . Bijou is also a very beautiful girl who tends to get pidgin hold as exotic looking or rare. She is also super smart and her academics are years above grade level. Having never met her mother as she died giving birth to her ,  Bijou was raised by her grandmother who she calls “Gigi” Gigi writes for living, using a pseudonym and for some strange reason they tend to move around a lot. Bijou has also been homeschooled most of her life. This is her first year trying out regular school.

Bijou is also plagued by a certain ability which threatens to overwhelm her. Her coping mechanism is to shuffle a deck of cards. As an empath she can read the emotions and feel them off of other people. Most people are typicals who can be read real easily by the non typicals are not so easy. Needless to say such a unique person tends to stand out. Upon her first day of school she befriends Sebastian and his twin sister Amina.

Bijou uniqueness comes out during swimming practice . She is a damn good swimmer. Too good. Everyone takes notice. Grandmother who was never so hot about her going to school in the first place wants her off the swim team. Like Superman she has got to stay hidden.

Sebastian and Amina are rather hot blooded and by that it is meant that when they touch Bijous skin it leaves burned hand marks. All her life she has had dreams of a hooded figure and I. This new town she actually meets this guy and it is not pleasant.

The town is plagued by a mystery. Every 17 years a whole bunch of girls end up going missing. This has a lot to do with Bijou. The djinn are everywhere and an organization called Solomon knights want power over them and the Djinn want something as well.

What follows is a face paced exciting story that will not let you go. The story is filled with faery lore from Europe and numerous faery types make an appearance. I hope she writes more of these kind of books.

Enter the Trance World

 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53324.Supernatural" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1390171021l/53324._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53324.Supernatural">Supernatural: Meetings with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18520.Graham_Hancock">Graham Hancock</a><br/>

My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3496379926">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />

There are caves in France that are really hard to access so hard that it is like why even bother? Going in through difficult passages you end up in like a room that has hybrid animal / human painting along with picture of hunting. Several picture show a hybrid man being hung up by arrows as though they are piercing through him. The caves are a mystery. No one has a reason to go down there. These painting are 50 thousand years old. They seem to have popped up all of the sudden. Modern man has been on earth for 200 thousand years. Why the sudden spate of developments what does this mean?<br /><br />Author Graham Hancock takes the reader on a journey through several different worlds. All of them are very similar. His main contention is that 50 thousand years ago man started consuming Psychadelic plants that caused him to hallucinate. Such drugs under discussion are Ibogain, ayahuasca and psilocybin just to name a few. These substances enable mankind to enter into a trance or altered state of consciousness . This altered state of consciousness caused man to see different kinds of spirit beings. Among them are these Theranhropic figure who are part man and part animal. There were also short being with big heads and large eyes. These being taught mankind .<br /><br />Shamans in South America are usually initiated after a certain illness. The shaman will venture to the spirit world and be ripped apart or eaten by the spirits. After which the shaman is reborn. His purpose is to get healing knowledge for the people . He sees being as well as therianthropic beings. Shamans Wouk consume Psychadelic substances which felt like pins going through you.<br /><br />The reader is also taken on a journey into faery lore of Europe and the modern ufo abductions. There are many parralels between the two including abductions, mating between humans and these beings. At times the human parent is brought in to take care of the child. The author believes that the faery abductions and the UFO abductions are one and the same. If you like faery lore , UFO abductions and spiritual growth through Psychadelics then you will enjoy this book. The author himself experiments with Psychadelic.<br /><br />The main ingredient in ayahuasca is dmt. Ayahuasca has other chemicals like harmaline. Dmt is also produced in the body naturally. Roughly two percent of the population can enter an altered state of consciousness at will. There are other ways of entering an altered state of consuousnes like through rhythmic music, dancing to exhaustion and fasting. As was mentioned earlier the author himself is experimented with these substances.<br />Ibogain let’s the user contact the dead that was what it was used in Africa for. Ayahuasca allowed them user to access almost another dimension and contact spiritual beings to gain knowledge and bring it back, strait dmt put the author in a a technological classroom so he could learn new things.<br /><br />The author also covers the relationship between our DNA and these altered states of consciousness. The information could be in our DNA. What is the purpose of these trips. Some say it is connected to the after life.

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How to Raise a Dragon

Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On the almost desert all desert planet of Austraria 4 in perhaps a time in the distant future when mankind has colonized other planets in the galaxy, there exists dragons. They were almost extinct when humans arrived but then they began breeding them. The purpose was for fighting in fighting pits. Not all dragon are domesticated , to be sure there are plenty of feral dragons. Our hero Jekkin lost his father to a feral dragon while trying to tame it. This planet is seemingly medieval despite being well into the future. People can sell themselves into bond servitude for money to pay off debt and survive. Only thing is you have to buy your way out if you ever want to be free. Some of the dragon slaying weapons are futuristic and require a power source.

Jekkin as mentioned earlier lost hi father to a feral dragon. His mother in order to make ends meet sold herself and her son into bond servitude. She dies while he is young. He is a one servant to Sarrukhan a master dragon breeder and owner of fighting dragons. Jekkin has only one shot at freedom and That is to steal an uncounted egg before it hatches in hopes of raising a dragon in secret strong enough to fight. Which he does. All through out the year in secret he raises, feeds , trains and protects the dragon until it is big enough for the pit.

A perfect book for young adults. It explores the relationship of a young orphan bonding to a pet that both needs his protection and he needs it. A bond developed . There is also some romance with what appears is a bond nurse. She nurses Jekkin back to health on several occasions.


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The Secret is Out: The Straight Dope on Secret Societies

Secret Societies: Inside the Freemasons, the Yakuza, Skull and Bones, and the World's Most Notorious Secret Organizations: Inside the Freemasons, the Yakuza, Skull and Bones, and the World's Most Notorious Secret Organizations by John Lawrence Reynolds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If this was a book about secret socities then we would not know they exist. Everyone knows about the Mason, Illuminati, Knights Templar and Skull and Bones . They are not secret if everyone knows about you, rather they are societies with secrets.

What is the point of secrecy? Many a times groups of people will go underground due to persecution and discrimination . Hiding so to speak. Sure it keeps you safe but in the end it can backfire. People will speculate behind what is going on behind close doors.

One prime example is a religion that is very prominent today. They went underground due to persecution. THey were accused of having orgies in the woods, eating babies and drinking blood. What group was this. Christians said this about witches but it was the Romans who said this about Christians. This is a result of secrets and the tidbits that do get out and then things get twisted by limited knowledge and half truths.

This is what did the Templars in . Starting off as a holy mission to protect CHristians in the Holyland. THe knights had a strict code to live by. They did not always adhere to this perfectly. After all they were humans with flaws. They had a banking system and acquire great wealth. Becoming a knight Templar could be prerofitable. In the end they had secrets and Sony enough a French king was in debt and with a corrupt pope in Cahoots they destroyed the Templars with claims of Blasphemy and idol worship. The society was destroyed . Some say that the Templars or survivors morphed into the Masons. THey have their own history. Read the book and find out.
The book covers a whole gamut of these societies. There is the usual Illuminati, Masons and your Templars etc. Among them are the Triads, Tongs and Yakuza and let us not forget the Mafia. Many of these criminal organizations started out with good intentions, like protecting people from oppressive outside forces only later they turn themselves into vehicle of suppression and crime.

These days peopple are overly paranoid about secret societies and they control over their lives. In reality they do not have that much influence over our lives. People network all the time. We call that friendship or alliances happens in all/ organizations. How secret are these secret so0cieties. May of us know their rituals and secret handshakes . The secret is out.

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The American Witch

American Witches: A Broomstick Tour Through Four Centuries by Susan Fair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

American witches were both the same and different from their counterparts is Europe. Like in Europe witches were blamed for catastrophes especially after a feud with a neighbor. Usually the witch craze swallowed up old women who where considered cantankerous and had no one to protect them. Witches also rode people and their their neighbors animals to their gatherings. Absent from the American witch is the rides out to the sabbath and the solstice celebration.

Quakers were prone to be accused of witchcraft, after all they were dissident Christians . It was not safe for old women to travel from Europe to the new world. If the sea turned stormy everyone looked for a scapegoat. An old woman with no one to look after her became the perfect target. Often times the woman would be thrown over board or hung.

The Salem Witch trials were the epicenter of witch hunting history. Lead by the famous witch finder General Cotton Mathers. Cotton was the son of Increase Mathers. Both were hot on the tail for witches. The first episode involved a washer woman staring at her mistress daughter and exchanging harsh words. Later the daughter started having fits. The washer woman would be punished. Another incident involved a preacher who was accused. On the flimsiest of testimony he has hung. Then there is Tituba and the girls.

The usual method for punishing witches. Was hanging . History would judge harshly those who put innocent women to death. Many would have heavy guilty trips over the stuff. The last chapter ends with a note about the Blair Witcu trials and how a fictitious witch changed life in the small town.

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Lost Civilization of America’

America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization by Graham Hancock
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

He has said it before, there was an advanced civilization before the official history of man was recorded. Piecing together the evidence Graham Hancock proves to us that human civilization is older than what we have recorded. The first pieces of evidence to be examined are ruin that have been left behind some going back possibly hundreds of thousand of years. Looking at ruins of structures in Ohio, Louisiana, and Missispi Valley it shows they were built with astrological precision. They are times to coincide with the summer and winter equinox. There is a structure resembling a snake in Ohio that stops short of where an ice age glacier this large snake shows advanced engineering technique.
There are also burial mounds and Stonehenge like buildings.

The next pieces of evidence involves genetics. There are different genetic signatures for North America natives have different DNA then the natives of South America. The northern natives had more Denisovan DNA and some what closer to European DNA. In the south there is a mixture of Australia melenese DNA. Like how did Australians end up in South America. There is speculation that part of the population crossed on the Bering straight but also that a group, possibly Denisovan got stuck there and evolved into a more complex society. This society was so advanced Thst they were able to map the stars and the planet. They were also very maritime an they sailed the entire world. It is believed that this society taught or spread its culture all over the world to anyone who would listen.

The next area to be covered is in the journey of the afterlife. Egyptian, Native American and even far Easter. Have the same journey of the soul. Boiled down to basics the soul travel through Orion’s Belt to the Milky Way. How did all,these ideas so similar end up in completely different societies. There is no way that these societies had any contact with each other. Unless the idea was diffused from a single source.

All the signs are there but where did this society go to? Where and when did they disappear ? Every so often the Earth intersect with the Orontid meteors. Around 12,800 years ago they crossed this meteor belt and North America was subject to heavy comet bombardment that tore up the ground, caused the forest to burn and covered the continent with snow. This got rid of Thst society. Any trace would have been washed away by floods or burned a way. Plus when Americans got here they destroyed a lot of indigenous archaeology. Before this catastrophe this society spread their culture and tried to set up colonies world wide. Now all we see are reflection of their knowledge.

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The Witch Hunts of Connecticut

Connecticut Witch Trials: The First Panic in the New World by Cynthia Wolfe Boynton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Little known about and over shadowed by the Salem Witch trials, were the witch trials of Connecticut. In way they were more severe. Of the 34 accused 11 were executed. Cotton Mathers,the witch finder General had a part to play. Like other books that document what is called the burning times the people who were most likely to be accused were old women that no one got along with. Or maybe these old women had property that people coveted. They also had no one to stand up for them. During those times women were not considered equal to me . They were seen as weak, sinful and easily tempted.

During the burning times a simple accusation was enough to get someone arrested, tortured, tried and then sentenced to death for witchcraft. If accused the witch finders would torture the prisoner until they confessed and they usually were coerced into giving names, alas more victims. The prisoners were stripped naked and examined for a witches teat. The witches familiar could be a toad , or a cat or any such animal. It did the witches bidding.

Like the story of Jonah and the whale, if an old lady was traveling on a ship and the seas became rough they could find themselves being accused of witchcraft. Once the accusation was muttered vigilante action took over. The ships captain did nothing to protect the old women. They merely went back to their cabin.

Groups like the Quakers were marginalized. While still being Christian their belief and practice was different from the standard practice and so hence it was easy for a woman of that faith to be accused of witchcraft.

A governor of the state, who was also an alchemist is the person who put a stop to all this. He demanded more proof and scoffed at superstition. Descendants of the witches have sought pardon and the clearing of the name of their relatives.

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